When Mother Nature Fell in Love
by TazzyG
Summary: Sorry for bad title and summary. Angel Williams never thought the day would come when she would meet her true love. But now that she has, what happens when another steals her away? And what about the 'gifts' she was blessed with? Rated M for lemon!
1. Chapter 1

**Sorry that I haven't wrote anything for a few days. I realize that I won't be often to update as much as I wanted to, so here's another story for ya. Please review it! Oh, and before you even start reading, please keep in mind that I am not racist, so any comment that you read that seems like it is, IT'S NOT. I am African-American anyways, and this character that I created is just a replica of my personality, only more defined. This isn't my real name (obviously) so you can't do anything with it.**

Hi! My name is Angelena Williams, but I prefer people to call me Angel. I'm a 15, almost 16, year old African-American girl who moved to Japan from the United States about 6 years ago. I'm really tall with really long black hair that looks almost brown when you look at it a certain way. I have super dark brown eyes that look almost black but are accented by warm golden brown colored contact lenses. I sometimes wear reading glasses with them because I'm nearsighted.

..::~*~::..

I rolled over and sighed in my sleep, enjoying the peacefulness of my dreamy state of mind. No boss to tell me to go to work. No friends to call me out of my name and pick on me. No stress. No worries about how to help get the bills paid for and dinner on the table. Then, my peace was shattered into a billion pieces, music exploding into my head. 'I got the magic in me! Every time I touch dat track-' I fumbled for my iPhone, my eyes still glued shut by sleep. I groaned out loud, pulling the headphones from my ears and turning off Magic, by B.o.B.

You see, I slept with my headphones in so that when I needed to wake up at 4:00 in the morning I wouldn't wake the house up with a loud alarm, even though it went off at 6:30 today. And I always picked a different song to play every day to try to get out of a routine every day. Yesterday I was jolted awake by Speakers Going Hammer by Soulja Boy. The first few words of the song were very fitting: 'I wake up early in da morning, 'round da crack of dawning, wave to my neighbors like wassup!'

I rolled off my bed, which was really just an old musty couch that I had dragged up to the attic. I pulled on a pair of black shorts and a white short-sleeved blouse. Then I staggered down the stairs to the kitchen. I made a nice breakfast of grits and eggs and French toast, with some blackberry jam to go with it, and enough for several people to get a plate and seconds. I made myself a small plate and ate wolfishly; I've always had a rather 'healthy' appetite. Which is code for the fact that I ate like a full-grown man. I yearned to get myself another plate, but I contained my cravings and went back upstairs to brush my teeth.

After my mouth was nice and minty fresh, I glanced up at my wrapped hair and cursed. "Ah shit! I forgot my hair!" I took the clip out of it and waves of my shiny black hair spilled down my back, still spiraling around my head from sleep. I pulled the flat iron out from under the sink and plugged it in. Meanwhile, I quickly ran a comb through my hair and drew a part onto my scalp. I ran my fingers underneath my hair and oiled my scalp generously. When the iron had heated up, I picked it up and pressed my hair. When I was done straightening it, I pulled a few strips of my hair out and curled them tightly, then flipped the edges of my hair up and curled the hair at the sides of my face. I stepped back to examine my work; the results were my hair flowing down to my waist with random curls spilling down to add a waterfall effect to it. The hair at the sides of my face was flared up to give me a slightly wild and independent look. Pretty nice even though I didn't have bangs.

I turned the light off and spun out of the room, glancing at my phone. "Crap, it's 7:50!" I was going to go register at a new high school today that was closer to this house and the one I was saving up to buy; I was supposed to be there at 8:00 a.m. on Friday, today. I dashed downstairs, stuffed my feet into my size 12 polos, grabbed my bag and keys, and ran out the door. I turned to lock it the door and then ran to the garage. Then I jumped on my old motorcycle and, slamming my keys into the ignition, rolled down the driveway and tore down the street. I think I broke a record that morning; I made it to the school with 5 minutes to spare, despite the fact that it was usually a 15 minute drive over there.

..::~*~::..

When I pulled up into the parking lot of the school, I noticed I was the only one there besides a janitor who was getting into her car. I shook my hair out to try to get rid of the windblown appearance that I had as I climbed off my motorcycle and propped up the kickstand. By then a few more of the faculty and staff had arrived. I noticed that a sleek black car with tinted windows pulled into the lot. A tall black haired man got out of the driver's seat in a smart-looking suit that strangely looked out of place on him.

Then a guy that looked about my age opened the back door and slid out. He had on black slacks and a white shirt on, similar to my attire. He also had a black and white bracelet on his right wrist. The first thing I noticed about him was his stunning orange hair. I tried to be polite, but really I just stared at him. The next thing I noticed that he was probably the hottest guy I had ever seen, being well-built, muscular, and had a gorgeous sun-kissed tan. Then he looked up at me from under his orange bangs, probably feeling me watching him. I gave a little gasp; he had vivid fiery red eyes. I felt like it got to 100 degrees or something, cause I suddenly had gotten hot all over. _What was this guy doing to me? _I thought as I felt my breath catch in my chest.

"...Miss Williams...?" I heard a voice clear behind me, and I spun around to see Principal Noriko trying to get my attention. I instantly felt my cheeks flush (good thing I'm black _and_ dark-skinned like my father) and I raised my eyes to meet his gaze. "Yes sir?" I questioned. "I said, Miss Williams, that you will be joined by that young man over there today for your entrance exam," he beckoned to the orange-haired boy, "I would like you two to join me in my office, and then we'll go to the library later to test." He walked over to shake hands with the guy in the suit and tell them the same thing he told me. He beckoned towards me and he and orange top (the little nickname that I gave him self-consciously) started my way. The suit guy got into the car and left. The principal told us to follow him, and led us to his office.

I noticed orange top kept looking at me, so when I caught him glancing in my direction I smiled and said, "Hi. I'm Angelena, but don't call me that or else I'll have to kill you. Just call me Angel." He looked a little shocked that I spoke to him, even more so because I sounded almost threatening. "Whatever. My name's Kyo... Angelena." I growled at him playfully, ignoring the urge to slap him in the back of his head. Yeah, I was 'blessed' with a rather violent nature. I wasn't so bad when I was a little girl, but as soon as I hit puberty it started to show. By 14 all the boys that I had crushes on ended up crying and having conferences with the principal and my 'parent' about my rather disturbing actions. Really it was just my brother Josh, pretending to be Daddy.

Kyo glanced at me again. "What? Why do you keep looking at me?" I said, beginning to get a little pissed. He blushed a little, then shot back, " Why are you so rude? Tell me that." I glared at him coolly. "When you get the answer to that tell me all about it." I sniggered at him, and he blew up, "Why don't you leave me the hell alone!" Apparently, the principal was extremely hard-of-hearing. I pretended to be seriously offended and even teared up a little. "I'm sorry..." I sniffled, waiting for his reaction. His eyes quickly lost some of their fire and his voice was a little softer as he said, "Ah, don't cry, I didn't mean to yell..." He stared at the floor, the blush creeping down to his neck, "I-I was staring at you... Because... You're really pretty, okay? Just don't cry." I smiled and pointed at him. "Hah! You really fell for that? Apology accepted. Friends?" I said super fast and stuck my hand out. He looked up, red-faced and open-mouthed, and said, "You're something, ya know?" as he grasped my hand firmly. I held onto his warm hand, staring down at our fingers entwined perfectly. I couldn't help but think, _this is how it's supposed to be..._

He glanced up at my face, then pulled his hand away gently. "Oh, I know," I answered softly, but a late. Thankfully, we made it to the library just in time. It was starting to get a little awkward between me and orange top. The principal ushered us into the room and I just stood there. And stared. One of the most beautiful sights stretched out before us: a massive room with not one, not two, but three whole floors of books! I was as excited as a sugar craving kid or a chocolateer in a world-renowned chocolate store.

I love books, I love reading, I love libraries, and I love it especially when they're clean. I could feel my body tingle and my fingertips itch to touch one of those clean books with that awesome new book smell. Unfortunately, no one else felt that way; the principal was already talking again and Kyo breezed past me, pulling me out of my reverie. "...I know that you both will do well on this test, considering your amazing background education. If you both finish around 11:00, let's say, then I will have your exams graded and tell you your scores by 12:00. I wish you both the best of luck; please take a seat at that table." Principal Noriko said, pointing at a table set for two with two tests already on it. We walked over to it and sat down, sitting across from each other.

An old looking man with thinning hair and a younger woman with short dark hair walked into the door as Principal Noriko left. "Hi," the woman chirped, "I'm Miss Suzuki, and this is Mr. Yamamoto. We'll be your proctors today. You may start now!" I pulled my mechanical pencil and eraser out of my bag, then opened my test booklet and started. Really, the test was super easy. I only had to guess on a few, which were mostly in the mathematics section. Since I loved to read, I had no trouble at all with the language arts part. I finished at around 10:30 and glanced up at Kyo. He was about ten questions away from the end. I put my head down to wait as Miss Suzuki picked up my papers. About twenty minutes later, orange top was done. I raised my head and smiled. "About time," I mumbled sleepily. "You two are free to leave the school now, but you must be back by 12:00 to receive your final scores. We suggest that you pick up some lunch while you wait." Mr. Yamamoto rumbled. I stood up, stretching my long legs, as Kyo did the same. I noticed that he was almost as tall as me, which was really funny because I usually towered over everyone else. Our proctors left, and then I realized that I had no clue as to how I could get out of this huge school. "So, how do we get outta here?" Kyo said, voicing my thoughts. "Dammit, I don't know either!" I exclaimed. He looked at me, and I looked back at him with a pointed look. Then I realized that we were alone. I was alone with a guy I just met. I hoped for his sake that he didn't try to make a move or something on me.

See, I'm a black belt in tae kwon do and I also know a little bit about karate; I've even won a few national awards in America for my talent. It's just one of those life things that my dad taught me and my brother before he passed. So if orange top had tried anything, I probably would have been arrested. Good thing he was decent enough not to. "So," Kyo said, "You wanna just hang out? Go look at the rest of the school? You don't have to if you don't want to or anything," he added quickly. "No, I'd love to!" I said enthusiastically. "Okay... What now?" he asked. I grabbed his hand. "I haven't eaten for five hours. I need something good to eat. Let's go!" I said, tugging at his arm like a six year old. Except I was really strong. He wasn't prepared for my strength, and he flew straight towards me, his torso bumping into mine. I fell down, thinking, whoops. Suddenly a big cloud of smoke went POOF! and clothes landed on top of me. Then something small and heavy hit me in my stomach "Oof!" I said as my breath squeezed out of my lungs.

..::~*~::..

**Sorry if Kyo seems a little OOC. But hopfully you'll see why in the future! Oh, and I'm making all of this up as I go along, so bear with me. And just because I'm putting this story up it doesn't mean that I'm giving up on The G Word. I just ran out of ideas. Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, second chapter here we go! I just want to say thank you to the three people that reviewed chapter one. THANK YOU! I wish that I had more people to review, but what the heck... tootsieflop, thanks a lot! ;) 88dragon06, thanks for the compliment. I hope you like Angel's response! And Kyo's. ;D Okay, now read it, people! =D**

..::~*~::..

The smoke cleared and I sat up. Sitting in my lap, surrounded by Kyo's clothes, was a cute orange cat. However, its expression was nowhere near cute and cuddly. "What the hell was that for? Now look at what you've done!" it screeched, oddly sounding like orange top. "Oh my God, you're talking... Oh forgive me Lord... Kyo, is that you?" I gasped. "Yeah," he huffed, squirming out of my grasp. My breath hitched, and I thought, _He's got a secret just like me... _"Aww, you're so cute!" I squealed to shake away my thoughts, not even worried about how a boy just turned into a cat. "You're not scared of me?" Kyo asked, his red cat eyes staring up at me. "No, how could I? You're still Kyo, and I really like you." I swear that my poor heart was gonna jump right out of my chest. O. M. G. Did I really just confess my feelings to this guy? I just met him four hours ago today! I shakily sat down on the floor by him and picked him up. Pulling him into my lap, I hugged him close to my chest. "Wha-? Y-You mean you like me?" He managed to say. "Yes. I do. How about you?" I asked, breathing into his fur. I stroked him from the top of his head, all the way to the base of his tail. He uttered a rumbling purr and snuggled against my chest. "I can't help but think that this is how I'm supposed to be. I knew there was something about you as soon as laid eyes on you." he confessed, warmth spilling into his words. "Do you think this is love at first sight?" I wondered out loud. "Maybe." he said back. I put him down and sat back, thinking. _You will fall instantly in a trance of love... _I shook my head, and collected his clothes.

"When do you change back?" I said, folding his clothes. I shyly picked up his boxers and just put them underneath his shirt. "Yeah... About that..." he stuttered, and then another poof produced some more smoke. "I'm naked." Too late. I had already spun around to face him when the smoke appeared, so I was now eye to eye with a naked Kyo in boy form. I tried dropping my gaze to the floor, but we were too close, and I saw... him... His poor face was completely red. I tumbled behind a bookshelf, smiling to myself and thinking, _My, my, my, I wish he didn't have to cover up!_ I stared at the books, my cheeks burning from my naughty thoughts, while Kyo set a new world record for putting clothes on.

"Okay, I'm good now," he called. I walked back to him, my face hot and his red eyes big. "Sorry..." I said, dropping my gaze again. Kyo put a hand on my arm, and used the other to pull my chin up gently. "It's okay, Angel. Accidents happen." We stared into each other's eyes. His face was getting awfully close and all I could do was stare at his lips, thinking about how much I wanted to kiss them. I leaned in, and our lips met in the middle after an agonizingly long time. His were soft and needy, and I pulled back to lose myself in his fiery red gaze. "You're my first," I informed him. He replied, "You're my first, too. Let's make seconds." He crashed his lips back to mine in a more passionate hot kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck as he held my waist tight, but held our bodies apart with his thumb. Then, a badly timed rumble came from my stomach, reminding me that I was still hungry. We separated unwillingly.

"Oh yeah, you're hungry." Kyo said, still in a trance from the powerful kiss we just shared. "Yeah, let's go find something to eat." I slipped my hand into his and led him out the door. Kyo followed and we wandered around. When I checked my iPhone, it read 11:27. "Shit, we've only got about thirty minutes left!" I exclaimed rather loudly. We dashed around and finally found the front office, where a kind secretary showed us the front door. We stood in the parking lot, and Kyo said, "We can't drive. How are we gonna get anywhere in time?" I smiled mischievously. "Who said I can't drive?" I pointed at my motorcycle. "You only have to be fifteen to drive a moped." "But that's a motorcycle!" he responded, a little confused. I shrugged. "So?" Kyo sighed and allowed me to lead him to it. I pushed my keys into the ignition and swung my leg over the seat. He wrapped his arms around my waist and we shot off.

..::~*~::..

I soon found a nice little ramen shop about five minutes away from the school. I parked and Kyo hopped off. He opened the door to go inside, but I placed a hand on his chest and pushed him back slightly. "Ladies first," I snickered and cut in front of him. He protested, "Hey!" but smiled. I kissed him and sat down at a table. After we got our meal, Kyo sat back to watch me eat. I tried to be lady-like about eating but we were in a rush and I was super hungry. Kyo stared at me as six bowls in quick succession disappeared. When I was done, I sat back and patted my still-flat stomach. That'll last me 'til dinner," I chuckled. "Alright, let's go," Kyo said a bit impatiently. I nodded and pulled my wallet out.

Kyo placed his hand over mine, shaking his head. "No, let me." He pulled his own wallet out as I put mine back in my purse. "Kyo, you better not let me get used to that, or else I'll use up all of your money!" He laid a finger on my lips, and then kissed me on my forehead. "Don't worry about it. Let's go!" He slammed his yen on the table and then we got up and left. I trailed behind him more slowly, my full stomach slowing me down. "Can we not run?" I asked, although I knew the answer was no. He tugged on my hand harder and just picked me up and sat me on the seat of my motorcycle. Then he took my keys from my pocket and climbed on in front of me carefully. I gripped his waist as we sped off and got back to the school at about 11:55.

I jumped off the bike and jogged up the front steps slowly. He came behind me and knocked me off of my feet, so that I fell into his strong arms. Carrying me now, he ran into the school and dashed around corners and down long hallways. Finally we made it to Principal Noriko's office. Kyo gently set me down in a plastic waiting chair and then collapsed beside me in the next. "You should lay off the ramen next time," he panted. I watched his chest rise and fall, then held my hand to his cheek. "Thanks for that," I said to him, rubbing my thumb-tip in slow circles on his face. The principal strode into the room and beckoned us into his office yet again. He was all smiles as he sat down in his chair. "You two did wonderfully! I have never seen such hard work and dedication out of anyone on this test before. I'm glad that I have the honor to tell you two that you've both passed, with great scores each!" He took a breath and smiled at us a lot. To be completely honest, this guy was starting to freak me out. A lot. Kyo reached for my hand and squeezed it, a small smile on his lips. I swung our entwined fingers back and forth just a bit, as Noriko said, "You two can be partners for the next month. Get to know each other, since you'll both be in the same advanced classes. That means that if you don't get along, you might just suffer. But I'm sure you two are already acquainted, correct?" I smiled at Kyo knowingly, then said, "Oh yeah, most definitely." The principal was also very naïve, too, because he misunderstood my tone of voice or even the looks that we gave each other. "I'm so glad you two are good friends! That's all. I'll see you guys on Monday!"

I sauntered out of the office and headed for the door. Kyo still held my hand, but he jerked on my arm and spun me around. "Angel, we gotta talk." I looked at him with surprise on my face. "What is it?" His face was serious, with a dark look on it; I hadn't seen him like that yet. "Well, don't you remember what happened in the library?" I pretended to think about it for a moment. "Well, let's see... We took a test, we kissed... You turned into a cat-" He swung his head around, then dragged me into a broom closet. "Shh!" He hissed. And I mean that he literally hissed at me. "Okay, okay, let's talk," I said, wiping the smile off my face and getting serious. "I know for a fact that you don't want me to tell your little secret. I promise you, I won't tell anyone." I gripped his wrists, looking straight into his eyes. His fiery orbs glared back at me while he said, "I don't think you will, but you don't understand the situation."

He went on to explain that 14 people in his family, including him, were possessed by the spirits of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. They were able to turn into those forms whenever they hugged a member of the opposite sex, or when their bodies got too tired and stressed. The 'god' of the Zodiac was the head of their family, an evil guy named Akito. And Kyo himself was possessed by the cat, so technically he wasn't apart of the Zodiac. "Wait a sec, I don't even know your last name! What is it?" I gushed, cutting into his explanation. He glared at me and growled, "I'm a Sohma. Now let me finish!" He continued to tell me that the family's curse was to be top-secret. No one else outside of the family knew about it, besides me, now, and a girl named Tohru Honda who just moved into his cousin's house that Kyo was living in. He said that Akito might be angry about me knowing about the curse and that he was most likely going to have my memories erased by the family doctor, Hatori. My face paled at that, then I started getting all misty-eyed. I knew I was going to start bawling, so I turned my face around. My whole body started to shake with me trying to suppress the rush of emotions that flooded me. Kyo stopped mid-sentence and wrapped his arms around me comfortingly. "What's wrong?" he whispered, laying his chin on my head and rubbing my arms. "I-I won't even remember you, and you're the best thing that ever h-happened to me! Today was just l-like a fairy tale, and now some sicko is gonna t-take you away from me! N-no!" I sobbed. (Did I mention I was sorta bi-polar? Well, obviously I am.) "There's a chance that Hatori won't erase your memory, or Akito won't let him… Tohru transformed me and two of my other cousins and he didn't have her memory erased yet. Maybe he'll do the same for you." I looked up at him, tears rolling down my cheeks but a hopeful look in my eye as I said, "Do you think so? Tell me what I have to do and I'll make sure we can stay together! That is what you want, right?" He smiled, wiping away my tears, "Yeah. Definitely. I'm in love with you, Angel… What's you're last name?" I gave a tiny smile. "Williams. Angel Williams." He repeated, "I fell in love with you, Angel Williams. Do you want to be my girlfriend?" I took a sharp breath, "Yes. Yes I do. I love you, Kyo." By now we were sitting on the front steps of the school. The black car from this morning pulled up. "That's my cousin, Shigure. I guess you'll have to go with us to talk with Akito." I stood up and held his hand tightly. "Okay. Let's do this."

..::~*~::..

**Okay, so that's chapter two! Everyone who reads this story, THANK YOU! Because every time I check my story stats, I see about 13 people that actually read the story. So to those 13 people, YOU ALL GET BROWNIES! But seriously, I don't get why my other story is getting so much more popular than this story, when I hate the other one and love writing this one? I just don't get it. . Anyways, please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**!  
>I am so so so so so so so so SORRY, people! Today I was cleaning out my email account and writing chapter four when I realized something: I haven't published chapter three yet! I finished writing it a while back, and started chapter four, but I must have skipped publishing it in the process... I have no clue how that happened, and I'm really sorry. I can't help but forget things sometimes, because I have a really short attention span. SORRY! So, here y'all go.<strong>

**Time for chapter three! I LOVE writing this story. It's just so much easier to write than my other one, which is coming along terribly... Oh well. Please read and review! Tell me what you thought of this story. I can't improve unless you tell me what's on your mind. So speak up, please! Help a sista out! ;D**

***Oh, and you'll notice that I have a different writing style now, thanks to a really simple yet handy tip from FreezingValentine. Thanks, Val! Here's a brownie! Oh, and can you people check out her stories too? She's an awesome author, and if you like yaoi, you won't be disappointed. ;D ***

..::~*~::..

The black car rolled up slowly and Kyo whispered in my ear, "This is my cousin Shigure. He's a complete idiot, a pervert, and is possessed by the dog. Let me do the talking; just smile and be yourself."

I squeezed his hand. "Okay. That's easy." I gave a big goofy smile.

The window rolled down, and the suit guy from this morning smiled at us. "Kyo, who's your pretty friend?" Shigure called in a sing-songy voice. "Will I get to meet her?" he added slyly.

"Shut up you perv!" Kyo yelled, his face turning red.

I giggled behind my hand.

Kyo made an effort to calm down, and said, "This is Angel. My girlfriend. So don't say anything perverted to her!"

Shigure's jaw dropped in surprise. "Girlfriend? Really? Good job, Kyo!"

I stared at Shigure, still clutching Kyo's hand. The man had some nerve, I can give him that.

Shigure finally stopped gawking and turned to me. "Ah, but where are my manners, young lady? My name is Shigure Sohma, and I'm very pleased to meet you."

I giggled again in reply, this time a little embarrassed.

Kyo smacked Shigure on the side of his head. "Shut up and stop creeping her out!" he growled. Then he said more softly, almost whispering, "She knows about us. We have to go talk to Akito."

Shigure nodded, sighing. "I'm just gonna pretend that I never heard you say that she's your girlfriend, okay? I never want a replay of Hatori's tragic love life to happen to you two."

I had a puzzled look on my face.

Kyo looked over at me and ran his hands through his shock of orange hair, shrugging. "Long story," he mumbled. He opened the back seat door and held it open for me.

I slid in, then glanced back at my motorcycle. "Who's gonna watch my bike?" I asked.

Shigure thought for a moment, and then said, " Well, if you live around here, you could ride your bike to your house and then I'll pick you up there."

"Okay," I nodded.

Getting back out, I grabbed Kyo's hand and slammed the car door shut. I raced to my bike and jumped on with him. We coasted up to the car, Kyo's strong arms encircling my waist.

"Just follow me," I called, then we rolled away. I always drove fast, but today my nerves were very jumpy; I kept shaking the bike. After Kyo nearly fell off twice, he clasped his hands firmly around mine and steered steadily. "Thanks," I said, a little ashamed.

"What's wrong?" Kyo whispered into my hair. I turned to look at him since he was the one driving; his eyebrows were knitted together with worry.

"I guess I'm a little nervous about talking to Akito."

Kyo plastered a fake smile onto his lips and said cheerily, "Don't worry, I'll be there for you."

I glared at him, annoyed at his sorry attempts to make me feel better. Glancing past his head, I noticed Shigure in his car about a block away, a huge goofy smile splitting his face. I grinned despite myself, then turned back around to guide us to my place.

..::~*~::..

When we were about a block away from the house, I could see that my friends weren't home. _Great, they're not here. I don't need those idiots here right now,_ I thought. Unfortunately, I thought too soon because they pulled up into the driveway right before me. I drove up and hopped off, annoyance written on my face. _Shit, they're here._ I sucked in a deep breath, then let it hiss out between my teeth. Three girls got out of the car. One was short and dark-skinned like me with brown hair and bronze highlights; another was super skinny, pale, and dirty blond; the last was average height, with glowing skin and long reddish-brown hair.

"Hey y'all! Wassup?" I said happily. The dirty blond, Sora, marched straight past me and into the house.

"Shut up, loser." She said, then slammed the door in my face for added effects.

My eyebrows twitched, just like they always did when I had to deal with my 'friends'.

Keiko, the reddish-brown haired one, walked up to me and smiled. "Well, well, well, look what the little housemaid found today!" she said, admiring Kyo. He had been holding my hand, but stepped up protectively behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist when she started to speak.

Keiko continued, focusing her attention on Kyo, "So when do you want to dump the little tramp and date a real girl? You know, not some slimeball trash."

I knew her words were aimed at me, but I restrained myself from snapping back at her, or knocking the coy grin off her perfect little face. She stalked around us, and laid a hand on Kyo's shoulder.

He tore away from her touch and snarled, "Keep your dirty fingers offa me!" I let my hands drop to my thighs, balled up into fists. I could feel Kyo's resentment and anger towards Keiko, but I whispered to him that it was okay. Keiko ignored him and then turned to face me, saying in a harsh commanding tone, "Have you made us something to eat? Some of us don't want to starve. And our house better be clean too, or else we'll kick your lazy ass out on the street."

I nodded slowly, bitter anger bubbling up my throat as I dryly responded, "I picked up some dinner last night for you guys; it's in the fridge. And the house is clean because I made sure of that yesterday."

She smiled. "That's so sweet of you," she crooned, changing her voice to a sickly sweet tone. She turned on her heel, flipping her hair over her shoulder as she left. The last girl, Iesha, shuffled after Keiko and snickered about the way she had talked to me. They both made sure the door slammed again; I sighed angrily as an attempt to calm down. My shoulders shook from the effort to not freak out, because I would shatter the house (and their faces) to pieces.

Kyo immediately released me and spun me around. "What the hell was that for?" he half-yelled into my face.

I held my hands up, saying, "Those bitches don't know who they're messing with, that's all. Don't worry about it, I'll explain later."

He shook his head as I tried to leave. Grabbing the back of my blouse, he pulled me back to him. "No. Explain NOW." Kyo thundered, his face dark.

I sighed, "Fine. Long story short, I needed a place to stay, so some friends took me in as long as I took care of their every need. That includes cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the police when their parties got too crazy. Oh, and they treat me like shit. Happy now?" I glared at him, then turned to leave.

He stopped me again. "But why do you let them talk to you like that?" he asked, obviously not dropping the subject like I hoped he would.

"You ask too many questions," I snapped. I looked around to make sure no one was watching, besides Shigure, then hugged Kyo to get him irritated. He poofed into a cat, and I picked his clothes up and stuffed them into my shirt. "Follow me," I said, chuckling at his angry cat face, so I added, "kitty." I went around to the back of the house and walked to the tall oak tree that grew next to it.

Jumping up, I grabbed ahold of a thick branch and pulled myself up. It was an easy climb, really. It was almost like the tree was lowering its branches and moving its leaves out of my way. Kyo scrambled up the trunk behind me, mumbling curses. When I had gone up as high as possible, I jumped across the gap between the tree and the house and almost floated to the roof. Then I leaned over the side of the house, flipped upside down and hanged by my toes over the edge.

Kyo flew off the tree, alarmed, and dug his sharp teeth into the edge of my shirt. He yanked hard, trying to pull me back up. "Stop it Kyo, before you make me fall!" I hissed, then unlatched the attic window and spun off the roof. Kyo freaked, flailing his paws in the air as I gathered him in my arms and landed feet first on the window sill. I jumped down into my attic room and laid him softly on the dusty couch.

He sat there, wide eyed, and shot daggers at me with his gaze. "Dammit Angel, don't do that!" he growled, then transformed. I threw a sheet over him just in time, then tossed his clothes beside him.

"You can get dressed," I said, and started to unbutton my blouse. Pulling off my shirt and slipping my shorts off, I picked up my second outfit I had laid out earlier and changed. Now I wore a slim-fitting low-cut black shirt with a purple tank top underneath and some dark blue jeans shorts.

I could feel Kyo's gaze on me the entire time, but I ignored him and waited till he was dressed. I put on some silver hoop earrings and a silver necklace with a garnet dragonfly hanging on it, and turned around.

"Ready?" I asked Kyo. He was blushing. "Yeah," he said.

I nodded and then took a running start and dived headfirst out of the window.

"Holy _shit_!" I heard him exclaim after me.

I landed in the oak tree, then slid down until I reached the ground. He followed me, then jumped out of the tree and we walked to Shigure's car.

Shigure groaned. "It took you guys long enough!" he complained. "I don't have time for you guys to go play with each other like that."

Kyo slapped the back of his head just as I punched him in the arm. We both smiled as he whined, "Stop abusing me!" Kyo growled to him, " Let's hurry up and get to the main house already."

..::~*~::..

After about ten or twenty minutes (I didn't keep count because I was too busy 'admiring' Kyo), we arrived at a fancy set of two-story buildings surrounded by a tall iron gate. The front gates swung open noiselessly as we got out of the car and approached them. Stepping in, I glanced curiously around the place. It was like its own village, but seemed to be completely empty. The silence hung crushingly in the air; the only sound was our feet shuffling along. I caught a glimpse of someone peeking out of a high window at me; whoever it was quickly darted out of sight in a flash of white and black.

"Is someone... There?" I asked quietly, almost in a whisper. Kyo didn't seem to hear me, and instead kept walking. I ignored what I had seen, and our little group came to the largest building. A woman in a maid's uniform opened the door; she quietly led us down a few hallways and then, we were there. Shigure left, promising to be right back; Hatori, a tall pale man with dark hair, joined us quietly. He was the family doctor, possessed by the dragon spirit, and apparently knew that I knew about their curse. News sure does travel fast around here, I noted.

Taking a big breath, I entered the room after Hatori and Kyo. They both immediately kneeled down on some woven bamboo mats, so I bent down with them. I bowed my head as I heard the soft padding of feet enter the room.

A female's voice began lazily, "So here's the pathetic tramp that found out our little secret."

I thought, _oh h-ell no, she did NOT just call ME a tramp! Wait a sec, she? I thought Kyo said that she was a he! maybe he didn't know? Made a mistake? _I said calmly, without giving away any of my thoughts, "Sir, I wish to speak to you alone, if you don't mind."

Akito smiled, "Sure. You two, leave." 'He' said.

Kyo stood up and placed a hand on my shoulder, then left. Hatori swirled from the room, leaving me alone with her. I started, annoyance starting to creep into my voice. "Two things. First of all, you're a girl. Kyo said you were a he. What's going on?"

Akito seemed surprised at first, but said, "Yes, I'm female. What is it to you?"

I glared at her. "Nothing at all. Secondly, this 'tramp' got a name, and it's Angel. Use it." I snapped, my anger bubbling over. I strongly disliked this person before me.

"You'll be sorry you said that to me." Akito huffed, then stepped forward and slapped me.

Change the afore mentioned to hated with a passion. My mind started to spit out all sorts of profanities; I probably would have given my mother a heart attack. Standing up quickly, I towered over Akito angrily. "I KNOW you didn't just lay a hand on me, you bitch," I snarled, slapping her back. Hard. Her head snapped back, and she looked back at me slowly, wiping the blood from her burst lip. "Don't touch me again," I warned. "I'm crazy, and I ain't scared by you. Everybody else may be here, but _definitely_ not me. You got that?" I stuck my finger in her face. She just stared back up at me, hate and even a little fear and admiration flashing through her eyes.

"Go," she whispered. "You win this time. Just leave." I strode out the room, and she spit at my retreating back, "But this isn't over yet."

I smiled happily, probably a little deranged. Who cares if I just slapped the shit out of the head of a really important family and she wanted revenged? She said (sorta) that I could have Kyo!

As soon as I walked through the door I threw my arms around Kyo's neck and kissed him passionately. He was startled but kissed back.

Hatori cleared his throat and said, "Well, how did it go?"

I detached myself from Kyo and turned. Kyo started, noticing the red mark on my cheek for the first time. "He _hit _you?" He exclaimed.

"Yeah," I smirked. They were both extremely confused.

"Why are you smiling?" "What's wrong with you?" they blurted at the same time. (You can guess who said what.)

"Oh, this is nothing. Akito slapped me after calling me a tramp, so I put him back in place."

Hatori cocked an eyebrow. "What did you to him?"

"I slapped the hell out of him." Hatori looked a bit shocked and turned to go into Akito's room.

Kyo just stared at me, a huge smile spreading across his face as shook his head slowly, murmuring, "I always thought that if anybody would have been putting Akito back in place, then it woulda been me. But what you did is amazing! Why the hell did you do it?"

I looked at him, cocking my head to the side as I said, "That bastard called me a tramp! He ain't gonna talk to me like that cause nobody disrespects me and plus, the last time I checked, I wasn't a tramp, and I got a name. He needs to learn how to use it or he's gonna be tasting my fist a hell of a lot more." I exclaimed, waving my hand around in the air to gesture with.

Kyo just stared at me with those bright red eyes and laughed, "You're so... _ghetto._"

I pouted. "...So? I get that a lot."

He pulled me close and kissed the top of my forehead. "I think it's sexy. And really cute," he whispered, lowering his mouth to my bottom lip that was stuck out. He kissed it and I smiled, kissing back.

"So what did Akit- hey you young lovebirds, get a room!" Shigure exclaimed, coming around the corner fast. He bumped into Kyo, and we both started to fall. Kyo pulled me to his chest to try to break my fall, but he transformed into a cat and only got squished in the process. He let out a harsh meow as I landed on him.

"Kyo, I'm sorry! Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." He mumbled, then turned on Shigure. "Watch where the hell you're going before I claw you!" he screeched, swiping at Shigure's ankles.

Shigure jumped back and huffed, "Well, sorry. It was an accident."

He sat down in the corner, and a dark aurora radiated from him. A few mushrooms started to sprout from his hair and the walls. **(A/N: Haha just kidding!)**

Kyo sighed and glanced up at me as I picked him up and nuzzled his face. "Well, what now? It probably wouldn't go too well if you transformed now," I asked, kissing his soft velvety nose. He let loose with a throaty purr, then said, "As long as you're hugging me, I won't transform. So you can just pick up my clothes and we can wait for Shigure to grow up."

I smiled. "Okay!" I snuggled him into my chest, his small body flat on my torso.

Shigure stood back up, done with pouting and ready to go. "I suppose I'll have to take you home now, Angel," he said, sounding like a serious responsible adult now.

Kyo squirmed out of my grasp. "I better go find somewhere to transform so we can leave," he said, then grabbed his clothes between his teeth and sped away. "I'll be back soon!"

Shigure clapped his hands together, all seriousness gone, and exclaimed, "I better go say bye to Ha-san before we leave!" He skipped off into Akito's room, where Hatori was probably still tending to Akito. _'Ha-san?'_I thought and smiled to myself.

I decided to go find my way back to Shigure's car, so I wandered out of the building. I floated around a bit, and then realized I had gotten lost. Finally I spotted a corner of the big gate that surrounded the estate and started to make my way to it, when a blur of black and white crashed into me. A big poof of smoke enveloped me, and then I slammed into something big, warm, and furry and fell back hard on my butt. The smoke cleared and I sat up, rubbing my head. "Oww..." I groaned.

I glanced up, straight into the cloudy gray eyes of a cow. "Shit," the cow cursed in a male baritone voice, prancing back. I looked down at the ground to see black clothes scattered on the ground. The cow sauntered forward and said sarcastically, "If I didn't have hooves then I would help you up."

I put a hand to his side and pulled myself up. "Don't worry about it. So, I take it that you're a Sohma?" I asked, brushing myself off and smiling. I bent over to pick up his clothes and draped them over his back.

"Yeah," he replied. "My name's Hatsuharu, but everybody calls me Haru. What's yours?"

"Angelena Williams, but you can just call me Angel. I insist." I put a hand on my hip, and laid my other across my back. "So, you know Kyo, right? He's your...?" I asked.

Haru finished, " My cousin. How do you know him?" I smiled even wider. "Yeah, about him... I just met him today. He's my boyfriend."

Three things happened the moment after I said that: First, Haru's jaw dropped. I knew he was about to say something, but then another poof of smoke appeared, and I freaked out. _Two _naked boys in one day were just too much for me. I remembered Kyo's words: _'As long as you keep hugging me, I won't transform...'_ Without putting much thought into my actions, I hurriedly pulled a very naked Haru into an awkward hug before the smoke cleared. Even more smoke wrapped around us and then it blew away suddenly, revealing Haru once again as a cow. He stammered, "W-Wha?" as his tail swished back and forth.

"Ah... Sorry about that," I said as I sweat-dropped.

He shook his head quickly. "Nah, it's alright. But thanks, I guess."

I relaxed a bit. "Is there anywhere you can go really quick to change? I'd like to talk to you, as your regular self..." I mumbled, casting my gaze back to the ground ashamedly.

He stepped up and smiled at me, flicking a floppy pierced ear. "Okay, I'll be right back." He scooped up his clothes and trotted away behind a building.

Soon I heard another POP! and after about a minute, a tall boy dressed in black cargo shorts and a black button-up shirt with a white T-shirt underneath walked back around the house. I glanced up in surprise at his hair; it was mostly just white on the top, but underneath it was black. I wondered if it was his natural color and decided to ask him.

"Haru?" He nodded. My face heated up as I realized how hot he was. _I just hugged this guy while he was _naked_! _"Is that your natural hair color?" I asked, reaching up to pat his hair. Wow, he was really tall. He was even taller than _me_! He nodded again, smiling. I grinned, saying, "Awesome! I love it." I didn't notice that his gaze had slid over my shoulder until I felt a strong pair of arms slide around my waist.

"Ah!" I yelped, and elbowed the person in the stomach automatically. I turned around and gasped, falling to my knees. "Oh, Kyo! I'm so sorry!" He had crumpled to the ground, holding his stomach.

"Argh, remind me to never sneak up on you again," he moaned. Haru laughed at him.

"So much for family love," I muttered as I helped Kyo back to his feet.

Haru smiled at me. "Well, see ya later," he said, then turned to leave.

"Yeah, I hope so!" I called after his retreating figure. Kyo straightened up after the pain started to go away. I laid my outstretched palms on his torso and massaged his stomach. "Does that feel better?" I murmured, smiling at him.

He grasped my hands and held them together. "Yeah," he said, then dropped my left hand and pulled me away. "Shigure's waiting for us. Let's go." he urged, and broke into a loping trot. "It's getting dark. Your parents will be getting worried by now, right?"

I stopped dead in my tracks. Kyo turned to look at me, surprised at the dark, sad look that was on my face. "Oh..." he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"No, it's okay." I said quietly. He led me out the gates of the estate and helped me into the car. Shigure said nothing, noticing the look on my face. Inside my mind, I debated whether or not to tell them about my parents. After about two minutes or so, I began to talk, almost in a whisper.

"My father, Tyler Williams, was in the army years ago and he had been sent to Japan for some army stuff I don't exactly know about. Instead of breaking up my family, he took my mom Akira, my older brother Josh, and me with him to Japan. We had a great time at first, but then my uncle Dwain, my mother's closest sibling, died in a train wreck. My mother missed him so much; before he died she had to talk to him a few times every day just so she wouldn't feel homesick for our little house in the San Francisco Bay Area, in California. But when he died Mom was such an emotional wreck that she killed herself."

"And she didn't just jump off of a building or something; she ditched her job and stayed at home and made us a big dinner. Then she wrote out her will and made sure her life insurance would cover all of her funeral costs. After that she wrote a detailed letter explaining why she was going to commit suicide and told us how much she loved us. She also explained what to do with her body when she was dead; she wanted to donate all of her organs so that she could give the gift of life. After that, she took a knife and slashed her wrists and sang hymnals until she bled to death. She had made sure that none of her vital organs would be damaged, so the only way out would be a long slow death."

"That's how my father found her that night after we went to a friend's party; it scared us all silly. Our father got quite sick after that, but he always pushed his body on even though he was bone tired. He taught us everything we needed to know in life, everything he knew and wanted to learn. Then he got diagnosed with cancer. It forced him to leave work and Josh and I had to get a ton of part time jobs and switch out caring for Daddy."

"Then Josh claimed that he couldn't deal with all this stress, so he left us. It was just me and Daddy from then on. I had always been a daddy's girl, so I wasn't bothered by caring for him. Four years later, my daddy was in such bad shape that he couldn't walk or talk. That was when I had to say my goodbye to him. He had to stay in the hospital, and basically wait until he died. I mourned for a few months, as if he was already dead. Then I came back to visit once or twice every week. Then, I got a phone call from the hospital that I had been waiting for months. After 5 years, my daddy had lost the battle to his cancer. But of course I know the real reason he got sick, and eventually died: because of a broken heart. He loved Mom. He really just couldn't live without her, the same way she couldn't live without her brother. People might think I'm sick for saying this, but in a way I'm glad that he passed."

I paused, memories of my father's warm smile and my mother's gentle caress washing over me. Hot tears silently streamed down my face as I smiled. I continued on:

"He wanted me to stop visiting and get on with my own life, to continue his legacy and start my own family one day. When I got that phone call from the hospital, I knew that my father had been released from his prison on Earth and was watching over me from wherever he is. But, I was on my own from then on. My father has been deceased now for about 6 months now. I had to sell most of his possessions to pay for the hospital bill, but it wasn't enough. I ended up selling just about everything I had inherited, including our house. All I kept was a silver locket with my family's pictures in it, a few clothes and basic necessities, and my dad's old cherry-red motorcycle. I went to go stay with my 'friends', who let me stay free of charge if I cleaned their house and kept them out of trouble with the cops when their parties got too wild. I have two jobs now, and I am still determined to graduate from high school and college to keep my father's legacy alive just like he wanted me to."

I pressed my hands to my eyes, rubbing at my tears fiercely. "Everything I do, it's for them. Even though my life is crappy, and my friends all treat me like bullshit, I will graduate! I have to. For Mom and Daddy." My shoulders shook from all the emotion as Kyo clasped his arms around me tightly, rocking me gently. The silent atmosphere enveloped all of us and we just sat in front of my house upon arrival there.

Shigure's dark eyes glanced up in the mirror, before he said quietly, "Here we are. Do you want us to wait a bit or what…?" I sniffled as he trailed off.

"No, I'm fine. It felt good to get that off my chest. I guess I'll see you guys later."

Shigure said, "Well, if you ever need to spend the night at my home, or need a place to stay, you're welcome to."

Kyo kissed me on my forehead, then slipped a piece of paper into my pocket. "Bye, Angel. Call me," he whispered into my hair, then reluctantly let me go.

I slid out of the car and walked up to the house that had become one of my darkest nightmares. I turned to wave goodbye, then climbed back up the side of the house to my little attic room. Once inside, I pulled the piece of paper out and inspected it, squeezing a few stray tears out of my eyes. It had a little note that said, "Angel, call me!-Kyo" and had his cell phone number listed underneath. I picked up my iPhone and put his number on speed dial, then stripped my clothes off and tossed them into my clothes hamper. I went into the bathroom and stepped into the shower, washing my skin and relaxing underneath the warm spray of water. When I was done, I slipped on my old robe and threw myself onto my bed in my room. I set my alarm on my phone, and then fell asleep with a single tear running down my cheek from all the memories and a sad, yet happy smile on my face.

..::~*~::..

**Yeah, I know this one was a little sad at the end. But oh well! How was it? Did you like it? I know somebody is reading this story. Can't anybody review?**

**And for those few people that actually did review, THANK YOUZZZZZZZ! (Don't laugh at my spelling, it _is_ a real word!****)You people make my day with your comments, even if it's just constructive criticism. So REVIEW! I'll give you a brownie if you do! =D**

**And I promise it won't take me so long to get chapter four out. I'm already almost half-way done with it. So please be patient with me. :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey peoples! To all that are hangning in there with me on this story, I'd like to thank you. Just for y'all, here's chapter four! Hope ya like it! ;D And as always, please review afterwards. Thanks!**

**..::~*~::..**

"WAKE UP IN DA MORNING, FEELIN' LIKE P DIDDY-!"

I groaned and yanked my earphones out of my ears. "Yeah yeah, good morning," I grumbled quietly to myself and turned the alarm off, which was Tik Tok by Ke$ha today. It was only 8:00 on a Saturday morning, but I had a job to get to. I stumbled through my early morning routine, careful to not wake up any of the other girls upstairs. They always complained about needing their 'beauty sleep' (and by look of their faces they definitely need it!). When I had fixed breakfast and worked on my hair, I took a good look in the mirror. I noticed a single dried tear that had dripped horizontally down my face, and I scrubbed the mark away. I remembered everything that had happened yesterday, and somberly gripped the sink's edge. I sighed and pushed the unpleasant thoughts to the back of my mind. I just didn't have time to get all depressed about my crappy life; I had work to do.

I splashed ice-cold water in my face to wake up properly. "Rahhh!" I yelped a little. "Cold." I went back upstairs to get dressed in my uniform: a white blouse with khaki pants. Over it I usually wear a green apron, but for now the apron was folded in my purse. I locked up the house and left when I was done, and drove to work. I worked at a local supermarket on the weekends, taking the shifts that nobody else wanted, and on the weekdays I worked at IHOP, the International House Of Pancakes. **(A/N: IHOP! The best pancake place EVER! I don't actually know if Japan has IHOPs or not, but it does say international... In this story, they have 'em.)**

** ..::~*~::..**

Ten hours later, I said goodbye to the manager and wearily trodded out of the store, my own groceries hanging off of my arm. When I got home I dropped my bags down on the kitchen counter and changed into some comfortable clothes. Now I was wearing a loose-fitting purple tank top and gray shorts. I kept my work apron on and went back to the kitchen. I planned on making some cake because my sweet tooth had finally gotten to me, so I pulled out my little recipe cookbook and thumbed to a well-used page. On it, the caption read "Strawberry & Blueberry Cake Delight" and displayed a rich white cake with blueberries and strawberries scattered on top and crimson and indigo swirls running in it, with little decorative piles of whip cream and ice cream on the side. I licked my lips wistfully and got to work. After I had jumped on the couch to wait, the doorbell rang.

Curious, I hopped up and answered the door. It rang again just as I opened it. "Hello?" I said, because whoever had rung was walking back down the driveway. The person stopped and turned; however, I already knew who it was due to their shock of bright orange hair.

"Kyo!" I cried and ran out the door. I held out my arms and pounced on him.

He smiled and spun me around a little. "Hey there," he said, putting me down. He stood and stared at me with those gorgeous red eyes.

"So why did you come and see me?" I asked, tilting my head to the side.

Kyo looked down, an embarrassed smile spreading across his face. "Well, I saw that you had left this in Shigure's car, so I wanted to give it back…"

He held up a thin silver necklace with a silver ring hanging from it. Inscribed on it was "My Angel", and it had a small jagged half of a heart on the inside.

"But that's not mine," I said, a little puzzled.

He looked up at me, straight in the eye. "Yeah, I know. I just made an excuse to come and see you. I was in the store picking up some stuff, and I saw this and thought of you… so I bought it. If you don't want it I can take it back and get something else."

I held my hands to my chest and gushed, "Kyo, that's so sweet! But why is there only half of a heart on it?"

He brought up his other hand. Lying in his palm was an identical ring, with the other half of the heart on the inside. It had "I Love" on it.

"It's a set. The tag says that they symbolize the love between two people. They're almost like a promise ring or something." Kyo stated proudly. He took my right hand and slid the first one off the necklace and onto my right ring finger, then put the other on his own hand.

I threw my arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly. "Oh, thank you, Kyo!" I squealed. I remembered my cake just then, and pulled him into the house.

"I just made some cake. Would you like some?" I asked, opening the fridge. I placed it onto the table and sliced it with a butter knife that was lying on the counter. He nodded, and I got a plate and put a piece on it. Then I served myself. "It's one of my favorites. Do you like it?" Kyo put a tiny bite into his mouth, and his eyes widened. "This is great! I didn't know you could cook," he exclaimed. He took an even bigger bite, and the slice was gone. I smiled and took a bite; the colorful strawberry and blueberry flavors had my mouth watering. _This is the best cake I've made yet_, I observed.

We each had another slice and sat down on the couch to talk. He told me about how he had been training in the mountains, and I told him about the time when my parents were alive and we lived in America. I thought that training in the mountains was really cool. When he said that, I asked, "So you were fighting wild mountain lions and stuff?" "No!" he yelled, then said, "Why does everybody think that I fought wild animals?" I snickered and pointed at him secretly. "Ha!" I laughed softly.

He was pretty interested in my life in the States. He thought that San Francisco was a great place to visit, and I promised that I would try to help get him there one day.

He eventually left the house with half of my cake. He had explained to me already that he lived with Shigure and another cousin, and the girl named Tohru Honda, so I told him to let them taste my cake and tell me what they thought.

He gave me a kiss and left just a few minutes before my roommates arrived. When they came in the house, I hid my cake and all of the stuff I used to make it in a mini refrigerator in my room. The quiet girl, Iesha, came up to the stairs and informed me that they were going out again. I nodded yes and watched her leave my room. After I heard the front door slam shut, signaling their departure, I came out of my room and cleaned the house. Ugh, cleaning after all girls is even worse than cleaning after guys. Once girls have no one with authority to tell them to clean up and no guys to show off for, they tend to be disgusting creatures, no better than a rat.

**..::~*~::..**

Two and a half hours later, I stripped my latex gloves off and dropped my extra-strength bleach under the kitchen sink and trudged upstairs. Massaging my water-wrinkled fingertips, I sat down on my bed and took my clothes off. Then I took a shower and got ready for bed.

Sunday, I didn't really do anything. I woke up to Back to Eden, by Donald Lawrence, went to work, and cleaned up the house afterwards. I had to go out and do some school shopping, though. However, the entire day I found myself fingering my ring and that Kyo was taking up most of my thoughts. I was just a little spaced out, but no one really noticed. I keep to myself most of the time, even though I'm a very social person and can make friends very easily.

On Monday my phone went off at 7:00 since school started at 8:00. After I turned off my morning song (Fergalicious, by Fergie and will..), I dragged myself out of bed and through my usual half-asleep routine before I washed my face with cold water. Shaking it off, I returned upstairs to put my new school uniform on. My face still got hot when I looked at myself in the mirror after I had put it on. It was a white short-sleeved blouse with a dark navy-blue skirt to go with it. Except the skirt was super-short.

I hated the fact of school uniforms. Why make everyone look the same? That's so boring to see the same people every day with the same thing on. I always tried to mix things up with my uniform; something unique that no other girl would be doing. So, I put on the white tie that was supposed to be worn by the boys only. I thought it looked professional, yet a bit thuggish and very tomboyish on me. I put my ring on my left ring finger and smiled. Pleased with my appearance, I fixed my hair and headed outside to get on my bike, my school bad slung over my shoulders.

I coasted down the streets slowly, trying to memorize my route so that I wouldn't get lost in the future. As I scanned the neighborhood, I caught sight of a telltale flash of orange. _Is that Kyo?_ I wondered. As I got closer I could make out three figures; one lanky tall girl with silver-gray hair; a girl with long brown hair; and of course, a tan figure I now recognized as Kyo. I came up behind them and drove beside the group.

"Hi Kyo!" I called playfully.

"Oh, hi Angel." He said, a little surprised.

I got off my bike to hug him, but realized just in time that I couldn't. So instead I just gave him a kiss on the cheek and walked my bike with them. The other girls stared at me curiously while Kyo's face visibly reddened. I also saw him eye the ring glinting on my left hand and saw his tiny smile. Strangely, the taller girl that walked beside the brunnette was wearing a boy's uniform. I decided to ask Kyo.

"Kyo, aren't you gonna introduce me to your friends?" I asked curiously.

He grumbled, "Sure. Angel, this is Tohru Honda. She's the girl that's living with us. Tohru, this is Angel Williams, my girlfriend."

I smiled at Tohru. "Hey, pleased to meet ya," I said, waving a little.

"Oh, so you're the one Kyo-kun was talking about all the time! And your cake was great." she squealed.

I noticed Kyo's face turning a deeper shade of crimson. "Aww, that's so sweet!" I punched him softly in the arm. I motioned for him to bend down, and I whispered in his ear, "Who is that other girl and why is she wearing a boy's uniform? Does she not like the girl's one that much?"

Kyo laughed loudly. "That's my cousin Yuki. And, believe it or not, he's a guy."

My eyes grew enormous, and I couldn't help but look him other again, this time picking up tiny details that screamed that Yuki was indeed male. His shoulders were a bit too broad for a girl's, and he _did_ have a certain bulge below the waist that all girls lack... I snapped my gaze up and held out my hand to him.

"Hi, my name is Angel." I smiled at Yuki, embarrassed that I thought he was a girl.

"My name is Yuki Sohma. It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Angel. I'm that idiot's cousin. Miss Honda is right, your cake was delicious." He shook my hand firmly, although his was really cold. He shrugged in Kyo's direction, and got a hiss as a reply.

I kept smiling, but I didn't like him talking about Kyo like that. I figured that I wouldn't like this guy too much in the near future.

I saw that the school was right ahead, so I waved goodbye to everyone and roared off the rest of the way. Really, I couldn't stand driving so slowly; I like it better when the wind is in my hair.

I parked and took out the map that the secretary gave me of the school. I already had all my classes labeled out by period and time, so I looked around for my locker and checked out my surroundings until the first bell rang. The hallways started to fill with students and I spotted Kyo making his way through the crowd, his map bunched up in his hands. He stopped right beside me, and rested his hand on the locker by mine.

"This your locker?" He asked, glancing at me.

"Yup. Let me see your schedule." I replied, holding my hand out.

He passed me his paper, and I smoothed it out and studied it. "Hey, we have almost all the same classes! Oh yeah, the principal said that we would because we're supposed to be 'study buddies'."

He nodded. "Yeah." He took his paper back and stuffed it in his pocket.

I noticed that he didn't have his tie on, and had his shirt open. _Ooh, that is so sexy!_ "Why don't you wear your tie?" I asked curiously, my eyes glued to that seductive patch of tanned skin.

He shook his head. "I don't like wearing tight stuff around my neck. Why are you wearing a tie?"

I tugged on my tie. "Cuze it's sexy, and I'm a tom-boy, and I don't like being so girly-girly all the time. Plus, I want to be my own self, and not have to look like everybody else."

His eyebrows went up at that, probably from my bluntness. "Wow. Okay."

All of a sudden, two girls popped out of nowhere and grabbed my arms. "What the hell?" I shouted.

They dragged me to a little closet before I could throw them off of me. They locked the doors and clicked on a little light, then shined it in my face. Outside, I heard Kyo banging on the door and calling my name. "Angel?"

"What the fuck is wrong with you? You can't just kidnap me! Let me go or else I'll kick your asses!" I yelled, my eyes flashing fire. The girls just glared at me, ignoring my threats.

Then, a chilling voice drifted from a dark corner of the closet. "Well, so this is the little girl that dared to speak and even shake hands with Prince Yuki! What do you have to say for yourself?" A girl stepped forward under the light, with an accusing finger pointed in my face.

I growled, "You mean Yuki Sohma? Why the hell do you care, you freak stalkers?" I slapped her hand away and bared my teeth. "If you put your finger back in my face, I will bite it. I'm totally serious."

She was smart to not do it again, and instead answered my question. "We love Prince Yuki. We are the Prince Yuki Fan Club!" The two girls that dragged me in there introduced themselves.

The girl with short brown hair yelled, "I am Mi Yamagashi, Member Number One!"

The other, a dark blond, exclaimed, "I am Minami Kinosita, vice president of the Prince Yuki Fan Club!"

A girl I didn't even see because she was standing behind the door, and now right behind me, said, "I am Mai Goto, Member Number Two!"

Then the girl that waved her finger in my face stepped up and threw her arms in the air, saying, "I am Motoko Minagawa, president of the Prince Yuki Fan Club!"

Then the other three girls started doing some crazed idiotic dance and kept shouting, "L-O-V-E we love Yuki! Yuki! Yuki! L-L-L-Love, L-L-L-Love!"

I shook my head. "I'm done with this mess. You can keep Yuki, I don't even like him."

I moved to unlock the door, but Motoko stepped in front of me and said icily, "Don't ever talk to him anymore. Got it?"

**(A/N: Yeah, I know I probably got all of their names mixed up, but oh well. I tried. Sorry!)**

I punched her in the stomach and kept walking as she crumpled to the ground. "Don't ever tell me what to do anymore. Got it?" I sneered over my shoulder, then slammed the door shut.

Kyo looked at me, purely in a state of shock. "Damn!" he muttered.

I smiled sweetly. "You see, that's why nobody messes with me. Now come on, before we're late for class!" I grabbed his hand and dragged him down the hallway, heading to our homeroom class.

I spent all of my classes with Kyo, except for second period. He had Boys P.E. and I had band; I'm a third chair saxophone player. I used to play the clarinet as a first chair, but I loved the sax too much to continue playing it as my main instrument. Now I just play the clarinet on the side.

I had most of my classes with Tohru and Yuki, too. I quickly learned that Tohru was a worrywart that was obsessed with meeting everyone's needs and Yuki was a quiet super-popular guy that couldn't really give a damn about other people. (Or at least that was what I thought.) I knew that he was cursed by the rat and all, so he probably didn't want to get too close to people, mainly girls, so he wouldn't transform. But sheesh, he doesn't have to act all cold and stony, and always fake smiling and being nice to everybody. I mean, today when he introduced himself to me, I could instantly tell that he wasn't really into it, because when he smiled at me it wasn't real. A real smile would light up a person's eyes. His eyes were just as dull and lifeless as a rock or a gem; just pretty to look at but none the less inanimate. I tried to be friendly with him, but he pissed me off too much so I just ended up talking to Tohru and her friends.

The two girls who always flocked to Tohru were... different, but in a good way. Arisa Uotani was a tall, blond ex-gang member. Saki Hanajima was a raven-haired mysterious girl who always wore black clothes and was said to read people's 'waves'. Upon meeting me for the first time, I heard her murmur to herself, "Very interesting. Her waves are not unlike of the Sohma's; very strange." But they were good company, and they loved Tohru like family.

In fifth period, me and Kyo were sitting together. I had gotten up and was talking to the teacher when we heard a bunch of commotion. We both turned to find a girl clutching her arm and laying on the floor, dazed. Everybody was cluttered around her, and Kyo was standing over her, huffing, with a crazy, caged look in his eye.

"Kyo? I asked warily.

He brushed past me and jumped out of the window. I ran to the windowsill and gazed down at his retreating figure.

Gasps of "This is the fourth floor!" and "Why did he jump? Is he crazy?" and "Wow, he's just like a human cat!" floated from behind me.

Mr. Hyogo stuttered, "Williams... Isn't he your partner? Can you go find him and bring him back, please?"

I nodded with a sigh. "Yes sir, I will." I looked to the ground. It wasn't a very high drop; I could have managed it myself. I suddenly got a crazy urge to jump out too, and see what the reaction would be. And besides, maybe it might take everyone's suspicion away about Kyo being cat-like if a girl could do it too. So, I gripped the ledge and swung myself out. I heard the teacher swoon and even more gasps of astonishment, and I chuckled as the wind whipped through my hair and clothes. It was fun, really. I flew down slowly until I finally hit on ground softly, landing on one foot. I dashed in the direction that Kyo went, stretching my long legs out to get maximum distance for every stride.

After about five minutes, I spotted him and called his name. "Kyo!" He turned to look at me and slowed down. I was glad he had stopped because my legs were getting really tired. 'I'll have to start exercising, or else I'll never be able to run again!' I thought, panting. I finally reached him and bent over, coughing a bit. "Stupid asthma," I growled.

He put a warm hand on my back ( I noticed that he had his hand way lower than that, actually.) "Are you okay?" He asked worriedly.

I just nodded my head. After a while, I stood up straight. "Okay, I'm good now."

He made a move to talk, but I slapped him upside his head. Not too hard, I hoped.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?" He growled, rubbing his head.

"That was for being stupid. You can't just be jumping out of fourth-floor windows all the time. People can't help but think 'cat' when they see you do that! And plus, me jumping out windows isn't any better, either! And I have to miss class for you. It's the first day of school! And then you assault helpless weak girls too." I crossed my arms and glared at him.

His eyes went wide with surprise, even though he was trying to be upset for me slapping him. "She grabbed my hand. But you really jumped out after me?"

I shuffled, losing a bit of my tough-girl act. "Yeah. It looked fun, and it was the fastest way to catch up anyways..."

He kept staring at me expectantly.

"Okay, so I was worried about you, too. So?" I grumbled.

Kyo wrapped his arms around me and kissed me softly. "Thanks," he whispered.

"For what?" I asked, arching my neck as he landed soft pecks on my jaw.

"For caring about me." He smiled, still kissing me. I kissed back passionately, losing myself in the moment. Then, the sound of the school bell nearby jolted me back to reality.

"Dammit, Kyo, I was supposed to bring you back to class. Not make out with you!" I slapped him softly on the arm and pulled him back to the school building. We went back to our fifth period class, and got our bags and a tardy slip from the teacher. The rest of the day was fairly peaceful, except for when I told Kyo he should apologize to the girl that he had slammed on the ground.

Also, in seventh period, Tohru got called to the office for a phone call. When she came back, she was visibly paler and a little upset, but she pretended like nothing was wrong.

"What's the matter, Miss Honda?" Yuki asked her after class. We were all grouped around her locker, trying to make sure she was okay.

We all saw her grip tighten on the book she held, but she said cheerfully, "Oh, nothing."

However, everyone knew that Tohru was a terrible liar, so Uo pressed, "Tell us, Tohru. We're family. You can tell us anything."

Tohru sighed. "Okay. The phone call was from Shigure telling me that he was coming to pick us up today. Yesterday I got a call from the hospital. They said that my grandfather is very sick and someone from the family needs to come up to the hospital. The rest of my family refuse to help, so I'm the only one left to take care of him. I have to move in to a residential complex by the hospital today, right after school, and Shigure's taking Yuki, Kyo, and me over there as soon as the last bell rings."

The entire group stayed silent. "Wha-? Can they even do that?" I asked, breaking the silence. Tohru turned to look at me. "Yes, and I'm moving in now so I can spend as much time with Grandpa as I possibly can. Shigure already moved my stuff out of his house by now."

Yuki and Kyo both looked shocked and worried.

"So... You're not living with us anymore? For how long?" Yuki asked.

Tohru shook her head sadly. "No, not anymore. If grandfather gets better, then I can move back in. But the doctors say that his condition is permanent, so that might never happen." She tried to lighten the mood. "Oh, but it's okay everyone! I still have school to go to, so I'll see you every day!"

Kyo grumbled, "It's not the same." He ran his fingers through his hair.

The final bell rang just then, and we just sort of floated out the door. The group broke up; Uo and Hana left while I had a job to get to. Shigure drove up in his car and told everyone else to get in. I heard Shigure explain that he was taking Tohru to her new home, so she wouldn't even get a chance to go back to his house one last time. I waved goodbye silently, blew Kyo a kiss, and left.

I didn't put too much thought into Tohru's situation after that. I was just too busy. When I got home, I changed into my IHOP uniform. It was a short blue dress with a flared skirt that had white frills along the edges, with a white blouse underneath. The blouse had frilled sleeves, a little red ribbon coming from underneath the collar to spill off my throat, and a blue and white name tag that read, "Hi, I'm: Angel :D" (I drew a smiley face on it). I wore long white stockings that had a little heart-shaped design on them, and black one-inch heels. I also had a small white half-oval shaped apron that was tied around my waist with a red sash. I tied my hair back into a long ponytail with a big red ribbon and grabbed my bag, ready to go.

**..::~*~::..**

I sauntered into IHOP at 5:15.

"Williams! How's my best little waitress today?" My boss, whose name was Takahiro (I always called him Ta'ro), greeted me warmly with a hearty thump on the back.

I smiled. "I'm your only little waitress, Ta'ro." I meant that I was the only girl under the age of twenty. Plus, he was like a father to me.

"Ha! So how was your first day of school?" he chuckled.

"Ah, hectic. Did I mention to you that I got a boyfriend on Friday?" I noticed how a few fellow employees drifted into our conversation when I said that. Boy, did they love a good bit of gossip.

"Hmm? Angel, that's nice!" "When and where did you meet him?" "Is he hot?" "Are you happy?" "He's treating you good, right?" Some said, looking at me expectantly.

I held up my hands with a laugh, and attempted to answer all of their questions. "Okay, I met him Friday at school when we were testing, and by the end of the day we were officially together. Yes, he's super hot, and I'm very happy and I think in love, too. He is so nice and sweet to me, and one day I'll bring him over on break so you can meet him."

Ta'ro held me by my shoulders and dismissed everyone. "Go back to work. These customers aren't gonna feed themselves; that's why they're here!" He stared at me for a second, then said, "Angel, don't do anything with that boy that you'll regret. I know that you are a very sweet girl, and I don't want you to end up heartbroken. Okay?"

I nodded, confused. Why was he telling me this?

"Trust me, even if you don't know why I'm telling you this," Ta'ro said, reading my expression of confusement. "Now go ahead and serve those people." He took my purse and bags, and pushed me into the direction of a table with an older couple.

"Hi, welcome to IHOP! What would you like order today?" I said, flashing a bright smile and whipping out my notebook.

**..::~*~::..**

I trudged out of IHOP and made my way to my bike. I tugged the ribbon off of my hair and put it in my apron pocket, checking the time on my phone. It read 9:00. With a sigh, I glanced up and looked at the beautiful sky. It was a cloudy night, but I saw a few stars twinkling just out of reach. I whispered, "Soon I can get my own place and live your legacy, Dad."

Climbing on my bike, I shook my hair out and whipped down the nearly empty streets. I noticed a fire truck race past me to a nearby stream of smoke that was up ahead. Shortly after that, a pair of ambulances screamed in the truck's wake. I respectfully pulled over to get out of their way, and then hurried on homewards. As I got onto my street, a flock of people stopped me from driving any further. I noticed that my neighbors were gathered outside, with upset expressions clouding their faces. _What's going on?_ I thought. _I just want to get home._

Mr. Sho, the leader of our neighborhood watch committee, waved his arms for attention. "Please, can everyone calm down! This chaos will be of no use to the fire department crew if you all get in their way!" He shouted over the fray.

I climbed off my bike and touched the arm of the nearest person to me. "Excuse me, m'am, but what's going on?"

The woman, named Miss Airi, turned to me. I saw recognition light up in her eyes, and she hugged me close. "Oh child, to be an orphan and have your house burned down too? You poor thing, you must be traumatized. It's okay, you're safe now."

I pulled back. "What? No, but my house is right there- Oh my goodness!" I had started to point in the direction of the house, but that's when I noticed that it was on fire.

My _house_ was on_ fire_.

**..::~*~::..**

**So? How was that? Leave me a review so you can tell me yourself! And I promise, I'll work hard to bring you guys chapter five. I'd hate to leave you guys with a big cliffhanger like this. :D**

**Review, PLEASE!**


	5. Chapter 5

**I am SO sorry about leaving you guys with such a huge cliffhanger. I'm sorry, but that chapter was just getting way too long. So without further ado, I bring you chapter five!**

***Oh, and if you see any bad spelling it's because I was really sleepy while I was editing and I pressed a few wrong keys.***

**..::~*~::..**

I pushed through the crowd, tears coursing down my face. "That's my house! Please, let me through!"

The neighbors milled around and made a small aisle for me to run through, but I was stopped by a firefighter.

"Stay back! It's too dangerous!" He yelled, holding me back.

I struggled out of his grasp and launched myself into the inferno.

"Somebody go stop her before she gets herself killed!" There was a scramble to stop me, but fear caused me to outrun everyone.

I sprinted through the flaming doorway and peered around, my eyes spotted from the smoke. I bounded up the staircase, which was thankfully not affected by the fire, yet. Outside you could hear the water from the hoses cascading down the house. I made it to my attic room and grabbed a small object off of the night table. I held it firmly in my grasp and leapt out of the window, and landed into the old tree. I slipped down the ash-streaked bark and tumbles to the ground, wheezing.

After taking a few puffs from my asthma inhaler, I sat back against the tree, watching everyone and everything in a daze. I looked down to my fist; opening it carefully, I inspected the object that lay in my palm. It was a small silver heart-shaped locket, with the word _"Love"_ inscribed on the side in a fancy script. I popped open the catch and studied it. Inside was a small photo of my family smiling on the beach. I was only a few years old at the time, and we had still been living in California.

"...The only day I didn't take this with me just had to be the day my house burned down..." I whispered with a harsh laugh.

An E.M.T. came to where I was, with a blue can in his hand. The can read _Pure Oxygen_ and had a nozzle on it designed to fit over a person's face. "You okay, miss? That was some feat you did back there."

I nodded. "Yeah. Was anyone hurt?"

He offered me a hand, which I took gladly. "Not really, apart from some teens that inhaled too much smoke. One girl got a few serious burns, but that's it. You were really smart to not go to that party tonight; you would have been in serious trouble if you did." He led me to the bright sterile environment of the ambulance and held the can up to my face. "This will help clear your lungs of smoke." He instructed me to breathe in and out deeply.

I sat in thought, following his gentle commands. "Sir, what do you mean by a party? And why would I have been in trouble if I did?"

He looked up at my face in surprise. "You mean to tell me you didn't know about this party?"

I nodded, breathing in the calming air. It made me feel more clear-headed and a bit dizzy, too.

He explained, "Well, it seems as if the owners of this house threw a huge party. They had illegal drugs, like marijuana and heroin, had alcohol, and were getting high. Some smart guy threw his joint on the floor, still lit, and it eventually caught the entire house on fire. Everybody that went to that party has either been arrested or is in the hospital. You were lucky that you hadn't been at home, and that you weren't harmed when you went back in." He patted me on the head and smiled sadly. "Do you have a place to stay? I can see if you can get a residential or an empty room if you don't."

My eyes grew big. "O-oh, um, let me see."

He asked, "How can we get in touch with your parents? I'm sure that it would be better if they heard about this mess from me."

I cast my gaze down. "I don't ha- I'm an orphan now." I almost said that I didn't have parents, but I quickly stopped myself. I did have parents, ones that loved me a lot and always watched over me. They just weren't living now, that's all.

The E.M.T. got quiet. "Oh, I'm sorry."

I glanced up at him and fixed him with a steely gaze. "Don't be. It's not your fault anyway."

He looked a little startled, so I smiled reassuringly, "It's okay. Look, can you give me some time to call someone?"

He just nodded and stepped away. I could hear him say to himself, "Wow, that poor girl."

My eyebrow twitched at the comment; it really irritated me when people got all sad and quiet when they find out that I'm an orphan with no family. I hate it when others pity me.

I pulled my iPhone from my pocket. Pressing two, I called Kyo, my fingers a little shaky.

He picked up on the second ring, and I spoke first quickly.

"Kyo?"

"What?" His voice was a little muffled, as if he had been about to fall asleep.

"Can you help me, please?" I said urgently into the phone.

"Hold up, what happened?" he said angrily, confused with my rather desperate tone of voice. Me being weak was not a concept he had heard or seen from me often.

"I just got off work and when I got home, my house was on fire! Now half of it is completely ruined. The firefighters say that with a little remodeling, it can be fixed, but I violated my promise to my roommates. I can't stay here anymore and I don't know what else I can do. Where can I go?" I was starting to talk hysterically, the gravity of the situation just beginning to sink in.

"Angel, calm down." Kyo said. He breathed heavily, then said thoughtfully, "You remember Friday night? Shigure said that if you ever needed anything, or if you needed to stay over, then you could. I'll ask him if you can live with us. Besides, Tohru's room is empty, so you could stay in there."

I sniffed. "You guys would do that? For me?"

"Yeah. It's gonna be okay, Angel. You know where our house is?"

"Um, no."

"Okay. I'll be over there in a sec to get you and your stuff with the rat."

I couldn't help but complain at that. "Can't Shigure come instead? Then he could bring his car and drive my stuff over there." I didn't mention that I didn't like Yuki.

Kyo sighed. "Good idea. I don't like that damn rat anyway."

I love you, baby! Thank you." I said, wiping a tear away.

He hesitated, then said gruffly, "No problem. Uh, love you too. Bye."

I sighed and found my bike, then wheeled it in the direction of the house. I went to go find a firefighter to ask some questions. I noticed that the house was no longer on fire, just smoking a little. Nearing the fire truck, I tapped a crewmember on the shoulder. "Um, excuse me? I have a question I'd like to ask."

The person turned around. It was a young woman, probably in the middle of her thirties. Her shirt had a badge that read, _Chief of Fire Department_. "What is it?"

I gave a tiny smile and said, "Well, your team said that only half of the house was totaled. Is it possible that the attic was saved?"

She nodded. "Yes, most of the damage was done to the lower half of the house. There is a small corner of the attic that did get affected, though; otherwise it should be just fine up there."

My smile widened a bit. "My room was in the attic. Do you think that I could move my stuff down from it?"

She put a hand on my shoulder. "Of course, little one. I'll get some of my team to help you."

I bowed my head. "Thank you, very much." Turning, I walked my bike to the backyard, and then made my way to the blackened door of the house. Three men who wore gas masks joined me.

One handed me a mask. "Take this, so you don't inhale any leftover smoke," he advised, helping me to strap it to my face.

Once it was secure, I sucked in air to get used to the feeling, then pointed to the closet. "I have some bags in there that I can use to get my stuff. Can you just grab a few?" I took up an authoritative tone, surprising even myself because inside my mind, I really just wanted to curl up and cry. And I knew that would be inevitable.

I pulled the closet door open and yanked a big suitcase out. The men grabbed one each, and we trudged up the stairs. I kicked the door open and started to pull my clothes out of my drawers and stuff the biggest case with them. Once my drawers were empty, I moved to the closet and threw everything in there into the bag. I ran to the kitchen (the half that hadn't been burned) and got a big plastic bag, then returned upstairs and dumped all of my jewelry inside. Everything on top of my nightstand was swept off into a bag, and my school stuff was swiped in as well. Luckily, I had left my saxophone at school, so I grabbed my clarinet and strapped it to my back. The case had a few splotches of ash on it, but nothing serious. When my room was cleaned of everything important, I grabbed a bag and dragged it downstairs. The men picked up a bag each and followed.

Outside, I spotted a familiar shade of orange loping up to the house. "Kyo!" I yelled, dropping my bag and stripping the mask off to run at him.

He held me away so he wouldn't transform, then muttered, "You okay? You didn't get hurt or anything, right?"

I nodded, my head pressed against his cheek. "Yeah."

He looked past me and saw the firefighters waiting with the suitcases. "Whoa, did you take everything you owned with you?"

I nodded, my face getting a little warm. "Yup. I don't intend on coming back here, so I might as well not leave anything behind, except my bike."

He let go of me to pick up the bag I had dropped, and the one beside it. "Come on, Shigure's waiting."

I followed him with a bag in one hand, and my purse in another. We reached the black car and Kyo started to load my stuff in; the men left my bags by the car and I thanked them all for helping. Shigure motioned for me to talk to him, so I opened the door to sit on the back seat.

Shigure sat in the driver's seat, his dark eyes drooping with sleepiness. "Well, I hadn't expected for you to have to use my invitation so suddenly, Angel."

I put my head down. "I'm sorry about the circumstances, and I'm very honored that you would let me stay for the night."

He glanced up, surprised. "One night? Where else would you go stay afterwards, if I may ask?"

I twiddled my fingers as Kyo threw my stuff in the trunk of the car. "Well..."

He raised his hand as an affirmative gesture. "Then, it's decided. You'll stay with us, until you're capable of finding a place to stay."

I waved my hands. "That's very kind, but I couldn't stay for free. I would eat you out of house and home, literally."

Kyo poked his head into the door for a quick second. "She's telling the truth. She's like a cow because she eats like she has more than one stomach."

I pushed him out by his hair. "Shut up! ...So," I pouted.

Shigure chuckled. "Who said it would be free? Your job will be simple; just clean up the house as it needs it."

I sighed; more housework!. "Okay. Thank you."

Kyo got into the car beside me. "Nice of you guys to help me," he grumbled.

I put my head in his lap. "I'm sorry, I've just had a long day."

He slitted his eyes, making himself look even more catlike. "You didn't have a mob of girls asking you a ton of questions and wouldn't leave you alone all day."

"But that's where you're wrong, baby." I yawned and covered my mouth politely. "I was kidnapped by those crazy Prince Yuki Fan club girls, remember? And you only had to deal with girls. I had to ward off guys who couldn't stop staring, too."

Kyo blushed a bit angrily, his arms folded. "What guys?"

"Oh, nothing," I mumbled. Kyo smelled good, like cinnamon and earthy spices, and he was warm. I finally fell into a dreamless sleep, which I was very grateful for. I knew that my sleep would be plagued by dark thoughts and nightmares, sooner or later.

Kyo sighed and stroked my black strands of hair. I could feel his fingers lightly running over my face and neck, and then back to my hair, although I was still sleeping. I snuggled closer to him, but was turned so I wouldn't transform him.

**..::~*~::..**

A little bit later, Kyo shook my shoulder. "Angel... We're home now," He said, then opened the car door.

Shigure had a bag and was already inside. Kyo rubbed my arm, and I awoke. "... I didn't hear my alarm," I mumbled sleepily.

"Wha? No, we're home now. Come inside and go to your room."

He helped me to stand, and then led me to the room I would be staying in. He opened the door.

"Gah!" I exclaimed, horrified. "Everything's... Pink!" I looked around, not doing a very good job at hiding my disgusted feelings towards the hideous, evil girly color.

"What's wrong? I thought that girls like pink? And only the bed and curtains are pink." Kyo said, running his hand through his hair.

I shook my head violently, my hair whipping back and forth. "Not tom-boys. I hate pink; it's evil! And that's like half the room!"

"Oh. I guess you can sleep in there tonight, and we can go buy you some more stuff tomorrow. What color do you like?"

"Purple, green, blue, red, brown, gray, white, black... Basically any color other than pink. And no reds that even resemble pink." I replied thoughtfully. I had no intention of letting them pay for anything; I would come out of pocket. That's why I have two jobs. I put a hand on Kyo's arm, and looked up at him from under my long eyelashes. "You and Shigure don't pay for anything, okay? And tomorrow I'll make you guys breakfast. I hope y'all like waffles, if you got the stuff for it."

I kissed him on the lips as he stared at me, his bright eyes lit. "Waffles?"

I shut the door on him, saying goodnight, then changed into an old t-shirt and collapsed onto the bed. I do believe that I was unconscious before my head touched the pillow.

**..::~*~::..**

My phone went off at 5:30, because I originally set it to wake me up earlier to get a jump-start on chores in my old house. Well, that house was totaled, and I would never clean it again. So since I was up, I went to explore my new home. I took about fifteen minutes to pad around softly, sliding doors open and peeking in. I found Kyo's room beside mine (I stared at him, even though he was in his boxers and a t-shirt), and Yuki's room was further down the hall (I swore I saw something alive besides Yuki in there, it was so messy!). On the other side of the hallway was Shigure's room, which curiously was filled with a ton of books. I made a mental note to ask him about them later. Maybe he would even let me read them, because I loved to read.

I eventually found the bathroom, so I went back to my room, changed into a robe, and went back in to wash up. I washed my hair while I was in there, using a strawberry-scented shampoo that I found that probably belonged to Tohru. I ran back to my room to change into my school uniform, putting my IHOP apron on, too.

I sprung downstairs, my hair dripping a little, and I found the kitchen and got started. I quickly discovered that Shigure didn't have a waffle iron, so I made a shopping list with that on top. I made pancakes, instead, so I started the batter for them. I made a simple strawberry syrup with the rest of the red berries and sugar, and put it in a pot. When the syrup was done, I left it on the stove to stay warm and threw in some pinches of cinnamon to the batter. I made some scrambled eggs for myself, because I was sure that no one else wanted any.

I heard the floorboards creak overhead. Figuring that the household was starting to awake, I turned a pan on and greased it with a little butter, then poured some batter in. After I had made a few pancakes, I put them on a plate and set it on the table, along with a kettle full of my strawberry syrup. I heard a small gasp of amazement, and walked out of the kitchen to see who was up.

It was Kyo, his orange hair ruffled from sleep. I noted that he had showered and put his uniform on, too. "Wow, Angel, that looks good. I thought you were gonna make waffles?"

I shook my head, water droplets spraying out of my hair. "Nope; Shigure doesn't have a waffle iron. Are we the only ones up?"

He sat down at the table and nodded as I put a plate in front of him. "Careful, it's hot," I warned as if I were at work, then continued, "And what would you like to drink with that? Orange juice or mi- oh wait, you're a cat, so you must want milk! Is that why there's hardly any left?"

I set a glass full of milk on the table in front of him, along with the carton. He nodded again as he took the carton for himself and drank from it. I smirked. "Wow, cat-boy, you're not gonna save me any?" He gave me a red glare at that comment.

I made myself a plate, too, and sat down beside Kyo. He slowed down when he got halfway finished, and said, "I'm usually the first one up, and then Tohru, and then Yuki and Shigure. But I have to warn you that that rat isn't a morning person. Tohru went to go wake him up every morning, and I think he's used to that by now."

I finished my plate. "Okay. Does Shigure wake up early enough for me to fix him a plate too, or just one he can heat up later?"

"I guess you can make him a plate and he can heat it up for himself if he lets it get cold."

I nodded and went to the kitchen, taking out more empty plates.

"I'm going for a walk. I'll be back before 7:00." He announced, kissing me on the cheek before walking out the front door.

I dumped the dirty plates in the sink, and made Yuki a plate. When I was done I marched up the stairs to his room and slid the door open quietly. I tiptoed around the mess on his floor. "Ugh, it might take me forever to clean his room up!" I whispered disdainfully to myself. I reached his bed and put a hand on his shoulder. Suddenly he grabbed my arm and threw me against the wall, except I broke through it and landed on the ground outside. "What the hell was that for?" I exclaimed angrily, glaring up at the hole in the wall.

"Stupid cat... Trying to sneak up on me..." was the reply I got between snores.

I stomped back into the house and back upstairs, pushing my sleeves up forcefully. When I got back to Yuki's room I went straight to the bed, and without bothering to wake him or not, I picked him up by his shirt and threw him through the wall, just like he did me. "Nah! How you like it?" I yelled, pointing down at him.

Yuki stood up, half-asleep. "Wh-what happened?"

Shigure peered in through the door of Yuki's room, yawning a bit. "Kyo, I hope you're not breaking my house," he complained, then stared at me. "Angel? What are you doing in Yuki's room? And why are there holes in my house?" He noticed the gaping holes in the wall, and started to get upset.

"Sorry about that," I said sheepishly. "Yuki attacked me for no reason, so I got him back... I didn't mean to destroy part of your house in the process." I bowed my head.

"Wait... So you know martial arts, too?" Shigure asked, fake tears in his eyes.

I nodded. "Yes. I'm a black-belt."

He walked away, muttering, "Leave it to me to have three destructive teenagers living under my roof, and all practice martial arts! It would be much better if my sweet little Tohru were here to calm things down..."

I looked outside, as Yuki fully awakened. "Miss Angel? Why am I outside?" he called. "And why are there holes in my room?"

I jumped down, and walked to him. "You seriously can't remember? You attacked me and threw me through the wall! And I was just trying to wake you up and tell you that your breakfast was ready!"

His purple eyes widened. "Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Angel! I can assure you, I didn't mean to harm you-"

I cut him off, "Yet you did."

He continued, "It was probably meant for Kyo. But still, why am I outside?"

I snickered. "Isn't it obvious? I threw you out, the same way you did me. And now I'm mad. And now I really want to fight you."

He looked at me like he thought I was crazy. "Excuse me? You want to _fight_ me?"

"Yeah, rat-boy. Fight. As in me beat the crap outta you." I smiled and crossed my arms. "You up for it?"

He shrugged. "Okay, but I'll go easy on you."

"Oh please, don't hold back. And I'll even be so nice as to let you have the first move." I said, smiling wider. To anyone watching, they must have thought that I was insane. (But of course, I'm only really crazy. And maybe a _slight_ touch of insane.)

Yuki stood there, then came at me with a low kick. I skipped backwards, my eyes glued on his every move. He came forward and threw a punch at my head. I tilted my head and let his fist whistle past my ear. He kept swinging at me, but I only danced out of reach on the balls of my feet.

"Is that all?" I chuckled. I could see him getting a bit frustrated, so I decided to attack him for a change. I swung my fist out suddenly, and almost hit him in the stomach. He backed up a bit right before I could. Yuki punched back, and I had to duck to avoid him. As I dropped, I swung around and kicked my leg out to try to catch him by the ankles, as I used my fingertips to skim the ground. Yuki tripped but caught himself, and I rolled out of his way as he brought his foot down. I sprung up and aimed a high kick at his chest, but he caught my foot and tried to throw me on the ground. I used his body to boost myself in the air and I flipped over his head, landing on my feet behind him. Yuki spun around just as I kicked out at him and he hit the ground.

"I win!" I cheered, and dusted my skirt off. "Your plate is on the counter, but you might want to go heat it up. I made pancakes!" I held out a hand to help him up, and he took it.

"How did you learn to fight like that, Miss Angel?" Yuki asked, his purple eyes shining with a real smile.

I grinned, happy that he was actually smiling for real. "My dad taught me and my brother. But Josh never paid attention so I was the only one who really learned anything."

Yuki chuckled. "I'd like to meet your family one day, Miss Angel. They sound every bit as interesting as you are."

My smile faltered. _So Kyo and Shigure didn't tell him yet..._ I thought. "Ah, I'm sorry. That's... Impossible."

"Impossible? What do you mean?"

I lowered my gaze. "My parents have already passed, and my brother left me."

I turned and went back to the house, all joy from my previous victory gone. I went to the kitchen to fix Shigure's plate, then gathered my school stuff and started to walk to school on my own. I just wanted to be alone for a while, but I needed to go get my bike from where I had left it last night. I refused to think about anything depressing, because then I wouldn't be useful to anyone, or myself. When I had time to cry, I would mourn properly.

I just never had the time to cry, every since my mom died. First she died, then I had to tend to my father as he wasted away right in front of my eyes. And then my only rock, someone that I could trust to be there for me if I wanted to cry, left. Josh left me and I had no one. So I locked up all of my feelings of my unfortunate past. But it eventually began to show up in my life. I started to get these terrifying nightmares from which I would wake up from, screaming and crying. It got better, because I just started to omit all dark thoughts from my mind, so I hardly ever thought about how much I missed my parents. But the nightmares stayed and only got more violent, but they didn't come as often. I hardly ever got a full night's rest, and I am always so tired. But the more I work, the less I feel the effects of my insomnia. And I haven't had the nightmare in at least a week and a half. But I had a feeling it wouldn't be like that for much longer, though.

I made it to the blackened house. In the morning light, it was only a burned out ghost. I smiled a bit, glad that this hellhole was finally burned to the ground. I walked around and rolled my bike out, then hopped on and rode to school. When I got to the lot, I parked and went to class, and although the school was mostly empty, I wanted to go sit in the classroom. I went to the room and slid the door open, and was surprised to see a girl with long brown-streaked blond hair sitting in the desk next to mine.

I greeted her. "Hi! I didn't see you in class yesterday. Are you in here?"

She stood up and smiled at me. "Yeah. I was sooo late yesterday because I overslept, and I didn't want to be late again so I came early today."

I sat down in my seat, and said, "Hunh. I'm here for some quiet time. I'm always busy, and I really just need some time to relax." I rested my chin on my hands, and smiled at her. "Oh, and my name's Angel. What's yours?"

"I'm Akiko, but you can call me Aki. Nice to meet you."

She sat back down, and we got into a nice long conversation. By the time class started, I was feeling a heck of a lot better, and I had a new best friend 'till the end.

Kyo came in and sat down looking at me worriedly. "Angel, what was wrong with you earlier? You left home before I even got back."

I giggled and tapped Aki's arm excitedly. "Aw, look, he's worried about me!"

She giggled too, saying, "Girl, you were right about him! You're so lucky."

I nodded. "I told you he was super hot."

Kyo stared at us like we were nut jobs. "Why the hell do I care about your feelings? You look like you're having a great time anyway!" He turned away grumpily, his cheeks flushed light pink, and his arms crossed.

I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Oh, I'm sorry, baby, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I just couldn't help but want to tell people about how lucky I am to have such an awesome guy like you as my boyfriend!" I waved my hand in front of his face, to show off the ring on my finger. "I love you," I added sweetly. Aki gushed about how cute we were as a couple.

**..::~*~::..**

For the rest of the day, me and Aki chatted playfully. It was good for me to find someone I could talk to about everything; I couldn't talk to Kyo about some things just because he was a guy and I wanted to talk about girl things sometimes. I knew he wouldn't be excited about going on a shopping spree, for example. I had to go to work after school, and we both promised to go out later and catch a movie or something.

After school, I changed into my IHOP uniform and went straight to work. Afterwards I went to the supermarket to buy a waffle iron, milk, and some bedclothes, and went home. I climbed into bed late, after putting the groceries away and taking a warm shower.

However, I wasn't asleep for long. I had a strange dream where I felt like I was falling, but when I woke up, I felt like the entire bed was floating. I whimpered to myself, silent tears slipping down my face. I terrified myself because I didn't even know what was wrong with me.

My door slid open, and someone came into my room and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Angel?" Kyo asked, his voice full of concern. "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing," I shook my head, shivering a little. "I feel cold. Hold me, please." I reached my arms out to him.

He wrapped his arms around me and got into my bed. "Do you want me to sleep with you tonight?"

I nodded. "Y-yes, please."

"Okay."

I rested my head on his chest, and I soon dropped off to sleep. I didn't know why, but for some reason, sleeping with Kyo made me feel safe and secure, and I never had any bad dreams.

I could definitely get used to this.

**..::~*~::..**

**So, how was that? I am really psyched about writing this story. So psyched that I'm up at 1:30 in the morning publishing this chapter! And, the only reason why it's taking me a long time to write is because of two things:**

**One, when I write I get a ton of sidebar ideas that I want to include in the story, which equals to a lot of mini stories and plots. Not very organized, I can tell you.**

**Two, is because my band camp has started. It takes so much energy and dedication to play in a marching band, and I'm very busy with it. It takes all of your focus to memorize at least forty-odd songs and learn how to play them while marching around in huge circles without skipping a beat or tripping. But I promise, I'll do whatever it takes to keep this story flowing!**

**I love y'alls, so please review! :3****  
><strong>(I think that this is either a form of persuasion or a form of begging. Please don't make me beg!)<strong>**


	6. Chapter 6

**I know it's been a while, a really long while. I'm sorry! But my schedule is insanely busy, and I**** barely have time to do anything nowadays. But, I won't give up on this story, because I have way too many ideas for it. So without any further ado, here's C****hapter 6 for ya.**

**..::~*~::..**

I walked into the house after school and put my keys down. "Hello? Shigure?"

I searched for everyone, but the house was empty. "Hunh, I guess I'm the only one here," I said to myself. Usually Kyo would ride home with me while Yuki stayed at school for something, but he had to clean up the classroom as a punishment for skipping a class today.

I wen to my room and dropped my school stuff, then got ready to go to work. I had a goofy smile on my face as I opened the closet door, because today was my favorite day at work: Wacky Wednesday!

I loved Wednesdays at IHOP, because all of the staff dressed up as something crazy, cute, or out of the norm. We didn't really have a uniform then; we were just told to express ourselves but to make sure we could still be identified as an employee. And the theme was always your favorite animal.

I reached into the closet and pulled out a pair of tan neko mimis and a cat tail. I put the ear headbands into my hair and parted it just so that my hair swept to the sides of my face. I put a red choker on, that resembled a cat collar, and put stockings with cat feet on. Then I pulled on my regular uniform and went to the bathroom. I peered into the mirror and drew whiskers and a black nose, then grabbed my bag and left the house. I put shades on, and tried to avoid the stares that I got from other people as I sped down the street. Thick, dark clouds and distant booms of thunder threatened to unleash a storm over the town. A few fat raindrops splashed onto me.  
><strong><br>**

**..::~*~::..**

When I got to the restaurant, I padded in through a light sprinkle of rain and shook myself dry, then tapped Takahiro on the shoulder. "Mrrow?" I mewed cutely, curling my fist to resemble a cat's paw.

"Hey kitty, you're early! Give me a hug, you little fur ball." He exclaimed, pulling me into a tight hug.

I laughed, "Hi! So, is there anything I can do for you?" I brushed off some moisture from my arms.

Ta'ro pointed to a few tables that were pushed together. "Some people called and said they're a few minutes away; they wanted to reserve some spots to throw some party. You mind serving them?"

I smiled. "Not at all. That's crazy; don't they know this is just a breakfast diner, not some fancy restaurant?"

He chuckled and shook his head. "Guess not. Crazy people these days."

I went to the break room and put my stuff down, passing a giant sock monkey whose name tag read "Hi, I'm Bob, the Giant Monkey Guy". An elephant held the door open for me as I walked past, and I thanked her politely.

A loud hubbub sounded in the main foyer, so I hurried out and smoothed my dress down. The bunny woman who stood at the door, Jessie, already seated the group, so I came over to take their orders.

"Hi, welcome to IHOP! What can I do for you today?" I asked cheerfully.

A short blond boy smiled up at me. "I want pancakes, please! With lots of strawberries!"

I pulled out my notepad and wrote it down, not really looking at faces.

"Angel?" A familiar voice asked.

I looked up, surprised. "How do you... _Ohhh_." My eyes widened; sitting at the table was Hatori, Shigure, Hatsuharu, Yuki, Kyo, Hana, Uo, Tohru, the blond boy, a small girl with light orange hair, a grumpy-looking boy with sandy hair, and a guy with long silver hair.

"Um... Hi guys," I said, my cheeks getting hot. "What are y'all doing here?"

Shigure smiled. "Well, we all felt that our sweet little flower, Tohru-"

Kyo and Yuki both growled at him, and Hatori glared a little bit, saying, "Don't forget that we aren't as _foul-minded_as you, Shigure."

The dog kept going on, "We wanted to treat Tohru to dinner for all of the nice things that she has done for us!"

I cocked an eyebrow and asked incredulously, "You came to IHOP for dinner?"

The blond-haired kid nodded. "Yup. It was my idea!"

I smiled. "Let me guess, you're a Sohma too?"

"Yea, my name is Momiji! We're all Sohmas, except for Tohru and her friends of course."

"Oh okay. Well, I still have a job to do; what would you like to drink, everyone?"

I took everyone's orders and hurried to the kitchen. I soon returned with drinks and gave them out accordingly.

"Here you guys go!" I set a big cup of hot chocolate with a huge pile of whip cream in front of Momiji, and took everyone's orders while handing out the rest of the drinks. After everyone's food came out and then they had eaten, I sat by Kyo for a moment, glancing around at the nearly empty diner.

"Whew, glad that's over!" I said, swiping fake sweat off of my brow for exaggeration. Kyo looked at me quizzically, so I continued, "Now that I have some time, can someone please introduce me to everyone?"

Tohru gasped a bit. "Oh, Angel! I forgot that you didn't know everyone here; I'm sorry!" She pointed out and named Kisa, Hiro, and Ayame. The small girl, Kisa, smiled shyly at me while Hiro, the sandy-haired boy grumped a little bit. I ignored him; he was probably just having a bad day. Ayame, however, was one of the most interesting Sohmas. He reached over the table and clasped my hand, then smiled brightly, "Hello! My name is Ayame Sohma, and I'm very pleased to meet you! My dear little brother Yuki told me all about you, and how you've been so kind as to keep things running smoothly in Gure-san's home."

I glanced at Yuki. _This happy, bubbly man was the older brother of icy, cold Yuki? He's lying, or joking, or something. There ain't no way that they got the same momma and daddy! _I smiled. "Excuse me, but did you say that you're Yuki's brother?"

Ayame bobbed his head. "Yes!"

Shigure chuckled. "Seems pretty unbelievable, but none the less true."

Yuki shot them both a fiery lavender death glare. "It's getting late, and some of us have to go to school in the morning. Time to go home, right, Miss Honda?" He was smart, knowing that if he had Tohru on his side, she would be listened to by all.

"Oh, yes, Yuki! It was so nice for everyone to treat me out tonight! Thank you! I don't want to make you guys stay up too late or something, so I'll go ahead and go home. Thank you so much!" Tohru stood up abruptly and started gushing thank yous.

Hatori got up and pulled his wallet out, paid for the meal, and gave me a pretty generous tip. I thanked him happily and he just nodded, then took Haru, Ayame, Momiji, Kisa, and Hiro home. Shigure followed Hatori with Yuki, Hana, Uo, Tohru, and Kyo, and dropped the girls off. I went straight home, to go and burrow into my bed. I wondered, _what did Kyo think of me in 'cat form'?_ Outside of my window, a summer storm beat against the house. The wind whistled through the trees, and the melodious patter of the rain against the roof lulled me to sleep.

**..::~*~::..**

"..." I smiled in slumber. Everything was so quiet, so warm... Then, something moved. I tensed up, as the heat suddenly left me. I softly whimpered and opened my eyes. As my vision unblurred, I realized I was face-to-face with Kyo. "Hmm? Kyo?"

He leaned down to kiss me on my forehead. "Morning."

I pulled his head down further, and his lips met mine instead. "Morning, baby." I played with his hair after we separated. "So why are you in my bed, again?"

Kyo stood up and stretched. "You were crying, so I held you. You never woke up though, but when I touched you, you sorta just latched on to me. I figured I would just stay."

I noticed the dried tear stains on my cheeks. "Oh. Thanks." I watched him, and noticed he looked a bit paler than his normal tan luster. "Hey, did you get sick or something yesterday? You don't look so good."

He stared back at me, his eyes looking a little hollow. "I'm fine," he muttered, running his hand through his orange locks. "All this rain is just making me a little tired. Because of me being the cat and all."

"Oh, okay." I glanced at my clock. "Oh... _Shit_!" It read 12:00, but the red light blinked on and off. I grabbed my phone, and realized I had forgotten to turn up the volume. It said that it was 8:37. "Dammit, Kyo, we're late for school! We must have had a power outage from that storm in the night."

I spoke quickly while tearing my clothes off and changing into my school uniform. I hung my tie on my neck, then pushed Kyo out of my room and into his own. "Go change! I'll go make us something to eat really quick. If we get there by the time second period starts, we can blend in with everyone else." I darted into Yuki's room and shook him roughly. "Yuki, please wake up!" I said urgently into his ear. He went through the motions of waking up.

"Umnh... Wha...?" He sat up slowly, his eyes glued shut.

I couldn't help but notice how _freaky_ he was being. "Um, Yuki? Can you hurry up? We're late to school." I stood there uncertainly, then left quickly. Yuki was creeping me out, the way he turned his head in my direction, but never opened his eyes. And his room was cold and wet, and had a gloomy atmosphere, due to the holes in his wall. _Ack._

I tumbled downstairs to the kitchen, grabbed the biggest skillet I could find, and set it on the stove on high. Then I grabbed a big pot, and set some water to boil. I dumped some grits into the hot water, added a generous amount of salt, and stirred it. Then I took ten eggs and broke them all into a big bowl. I beat them with a fork while I stirred the grits. I sprinkled some freshly ground black pepper and salt into the eggs, mixed them up, and left them by the skillet to pop some slices of bread into the toaster oven. By then the grits were ready, so I threw a piece of butter into it and took it off the heat. My skillet was hot, so I spread a little butter on the bottom and poured the eggs into it. I scrambled them and pulled my toast out of the oven. When the eggs were done, I put a piece of toast each on four plates and called everybody to breakfast.

"Kyo! Yuki! Shigure! Come and eat, guys!"

I put the cartons of orange juice and milk onto the table and piled my plate with eggs and grits, and grabbed a bottle of syrup. I mixed them all together meticulously, then poured the sweet brown liquid on top and dug in, taking a bite of toast. _Mmm!_ I thought_. Too bad they must hate me for making them American dishes all the time. Oh well, 'cuz it's what I make best._

After all of the guys ate their fill, I cleaned the kitchen and hustled Kyo out the door. "Bye Yuki, see you at school!" My bike could only take one other person, and naturally that person would be Kyo. Yuki walked every day, so what difference did it make? I still felt kinda guilty; I would have to start driving Shigure's car or get my own if I wanted to drive to school with everyone.

I held Kyo's hand, and when I glanced back I caught the sly smirk he had thrown in Yuki's direction. "Kyo, do you really have to gloat about it?" I complained.

He grinned wolfishly. "Yes."

I sighed. "You're impossible sometimes."

"Thanks." He gave me a kiss as I climbed on my bike. Overhead, the clouds only slightly drizzled.

**..::~*~::..**

I was hard at work, since it was almost time for the pancake diner to close. A few tables were still occupied, so I buzzed around, asking if there was anything I could do. I noticed a dark-skinned young man, probably in his early twenties. He had short black hair with waves and was seated by himself, with a few papers and photos spread out on the table before him. He was bent over them intently, writing furiously and sipping at his hot chocolate. I knew that he was a regular customer and approached him quietly, not wanting to interrupt him but I had a job to do. When I got closer to him, after waiting on a few other tables first, I noticed that he had taken to watching me with a slow smile. I finally walked up to him, a bit unnerved.

"Hello, sir, how can I help you today?" I greeted him with a wide friendly smile. He looked straight into my eyes. I noted that he had warm caramel brown eyes, just like my mother and my older brother, Josh, had.

He cleared his throat, donning black-framed glasses and started, "Yes, I think you can help me." I pulled out my notebook, pen poised to take his order.

"No, no, I don't want to order anything to eat," he said, waving his hand.

"Oh, okay." I replied as I pocketed my book, a little confused and thoroughly interested.

He rested his chin on his hand and glanced down at his papers, before studying my face and saying, "I'm looking for a girl. She should be around fifteen years old now, probably really tall with dark hair that attends the local high school in this area. Her name is Angelena Williams and here's a picture of when I last saw her."

My eyes widened. _H-How did he know my name? _He slid a photo of a girl I knew all too well. It was of me, smiling through my tears at my father's funeral. I was posing with Josh, who I haven't seen since then.

"Yes, I know her!" I exclaimed. I stared at the young man before me hopefully. Could... Could he be Josh, the brother that I really hadn't talked to in years? At my father's funeral, I never got the chance to speak to him because he took off right after the service.

He stood up abruptly, and clasped my hands. "Can you please tell me how to find her?"

I looked away from him, not wanting to get my hopes up.

"Of course, but I need to know... What is your name, sir?"

He spoke quickly, "My name is Josh. Joshua Williams. This girl is my sister."

My heart thudded painfully in my chest. I turned my head to look back at him. I licked my suddenly dry lips and whispered in English, "Josh... Is that really you?"

He squinted and peered into my face, realization setting into his eyes. He shouted in our native language, "...Angelena? _...Angel!_Oh God, it is you! Angel!"

I hugged him tightly around his neck. "Josh! It's me! Angel, your little sister! Why did you go?"

Some people were staring at us, so I pulled him into the breakroom. Tears poured down both of our faces openly as Josh launched into his story.

"When Mom died and it was just me and you taking care of Dad while he was dying, I just... Couldn't take it anymore. To wake up every day and see someone you loved so much be in pain and dying right before your eyes, I just couldn't do it. So I left. I didn't want to be a burden to you and I didn't want to let Dad see me being so weak."

"After I left I moved to a different city and started my own life. My friend's parents let me stay with them and I finished high school and went to college. I met a girl and we started dating and bought a house, and my life just progressed on from there. Then I got a phone call one day saying that Dad had passed and the date of his funeral. I got in really bad shape then; I just couldn't believe he was gone. I got super-depressed and after trying to support me, even my girlfriend dumped me. She kicked me out of our house and told me to call her back when I grew up."

"I got on a train and went to the service, but I was too much of an emotional wreck to talk to anyone. All I did was take pictures with everybody and then I ran away. I remembered that before I had lost it, my girlfriend told me that I needed to find a way to vent my emotions. I decided to try that, and then I got myself lost."

"But finally, that day, I found this little dojo. This really nice guy named Kazuma kinda took me in and got me back on my feet; plus he taught me a ton of stuff. He taught me karate, but he also taught me how to be a man. I stayed at the dojo for about a month and a half, and then I went back home to my girlfriend. We made up and I immediately proposed to her."

"My life was perfect, almost perfect. The only thing I was missing was my family. So, I started to look for you. I moved back to this town and looked everywhere for you. If you've noticed by now, I hang around this place a lot. Not only because it has such a warm friendly atmosphere, but because you were spotted somewhere in this area. I had no idea that you were in the very same room with me for so long, right underneath my nose."

He paused in his speech to pull back from me and look me up and down. "Oh, it's been too long, sis. Look at you! If I hadn't known your real age I would have said that you were about 20, almost a grown woman. It's good to have finally found you."

I just nodded and smiled. Then Takahiro chose the perfect time to interrupt.

"Angel! What are you doing in here? I don't pay you to sit around and chat with friends. Get to work!" He said loudly, bursting into the little room.

I turned to him, and he noticed our wet cheeks, and the tear slipping unchecked from my eye.

"What's going on?" He asked, glancing from me to Josh and back.

"I'm sorry, Ta'ro. It's just... I'm having a little family reunion moment here. Will you please allow me to take the rest of the night off? This is really important to us." I practically begged the man in Japanese.

"Oh, all right," he grumbled. "But leave now unless you're buying something to eat."

We walked out of the restaurant, arms wrapped around each other. I steered Josh toward my motorbike.

"Oh, you still have this old thing? Is it working out for you?" Josh said, running his fingers over the worn leather seat.

I nodded. He pointed to a dark green BMW. "I'm doing pretty well myself. Come on over to my place; you can follow on the bike."

I hugged Josh and then hopped on my bike. "Okay, lead away," I called.

He trotted across the parking lot and opened the door of his car. He threw his papers into the passenger seat and turned the key, then drove away.

**..::~*~::..**

Later, we arrived at a pleasant two-story house. Josh jumped out of his car and walked up the driveway. I pulled up behind his BMW and hurried up to him. He opened the front door and led me to his living room. "Please, sit down." He murmured, bouncing down to sit on a fluffy white futon.

I did the same. Josh moved closer to me and held my hand. "Angel, there's some things we need to talk about. About you."

I looked up sharply, hearing his serious tone of voice.

He continued on brazenly, "Angel... Now that we have no parents, I am your legal guardian. I feel that the best way to raise you is in a normal home setting."

I glared at him playfully. "Can you cut the crap and get to the point? I have school in the morning and I can't afford to blow off work two days in a row."

Josh frowned. "This is what I mean. You're only fifteen; you shouldn't have to worry about working. That's my job. Angel, I want you to stay with me here so I can raise you right."

I scooted away from him. "...What? No_. No!_I-I can't. I'm sorry, but no." The thought of leaving my happy home with Yuki, Shigure, and Kyo caused me to stand up quickly and turn to leave.

"Wait, wait, Angel! I'm sorry for moving too fast. Please, sit down so we can talk about this." Josh begged.

I froze. _Here I am. I've finally found my brother, and I'm already trying to walk out of his life. Didn't he do the exact same thing to me? And our _dying_ father? No, not again. We're all that's left of our family in this country. We need to stick together._

"Fine," I sighed, and sat down. "But I already have a place to stay."

Josh smiled. "Thanks. So where do you live?"

I smiled nervously. What I had to say probably didn't sound too good... "Ah... I live with some friends from school. And their cousin."

"Oh, okay. What are their names? Where do they live?"

"They live on a family estate just outside of town, and their names are Yuki and Kyo, and Shigure. They're all cousins."

Josh sat back, puzzled. "Their moms liked boy names for girls?"

I twiddled my fingers. "No... They're all guys. Kyo is my boyfriend, actually." I winced.

Josh's eye twitched, just like mine does when I get really angry. He balled his hands into fists, then relaxed. "Okay," he said thickly. I knew that tone of voice all too well; he was trying very hard not to blow up. The family resemblance was so painfully similar at this moment.

"You live in a house. With three guys. And you're _dating_one of them?" He said slowly.

"Yup, pretty much." I winced again.

"How long?"

"I just moved in Monday, because my old house burned down. And I only met Kyo Friday, and by the end of the night I was his girlfriend and totally in love with him. "

"Okay, okay... And your house burned down? You know how wrong all of that sounds, right?"

I nodded, a bit upset. "Yeah. But I can take care of myself."

He held his hands up. "Oh, I know that; you were always better than me at martial arts. And you _are_a very smart girl. But as your brother and guardian and closest living relative, I still worry sometimes." He sat quietly, thinking.

"What do you want me to do? I'm not leaving them."

Josh sighed and drummed his fingers on the edge of his cheek. "I guess you can stay with them. But you have to visit me and stay in touch. And call me every two days. And visit every weekend. And I'm dropping by randomly. And bring everyone to my house Sunday evening for dinner. Got it?"

I smiled. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Josh! I love you bro."

He hugged me. "Love you too, sis."

I stood up and wandered to the door. "I really have to go now; I gotta get ready for tomorrow. I run those boys' home now, so I've got stuff to do. What's your number?"

"Oh, yeah. Here." Josh snatched a piece of paper out of his pocket and jotted down his number. I tore the sheet in half and wrote my cell phone number on the other side.

My phone vibrated suddenly, so I answered it. "Hello?" I switched back to talking in Japanese.

Kyo's voice panted into the speaker. "Hey. Where are you?"

"Oh, hey baby! You missed me?"

"I did not! Not like that anyway... I just... Forget it, it's getting late. I just want to know where you are." I could hear him getting flustered; it was so sweet of him to be worried about me.

"You'll never believe it, so I'll tell you when we get home. Why are you all worried?"

"You got off work an hour ago. I'm still at IHOP, waiting for you."

_Aww!_ "Kyo, go home!" I scolded him gently. "You know it's been stormy lately, and I don't want you to get sick." I hoped he could hear the _'thank you, I love you'_in my voice. I know Josh did, as he watched me with curiosity.

As I talked to Kyo, I mouthed _'bye'_to Josh and walked out the door. There was a bitter wind blowing about; another reminder of the stormy weather and the approach of fall.

I hung up on Kyo after telling him goodbye, since I was riding home on my motorbike. I roared off into the chilly darkness, although I was warm on the inside with joy. _I found Josh!  
><em>

**..::~*~::..**

I stepped into the cozy house. A sniffle, followed by the soft clank of metal, drifted from the kitchen. I padded into the room to find Kyo standing at the stovetop. He looked over his shoulder at me, and said, "I made soup."

I smiled. "I didn't know you could cook!"

"How else would I have survived this long? Shishou isn't the greatest of cooks, and Shigure and that rat sure as hell ain't either." He smiled.

I inhaled. "Oh. Mmm, it smells pretty good." My stomach rumbled to accentuate the fact that I hadn't eaten anything since lunch at school.

I grabbed a bowl, and Kyo ladled some soup into it. As I wolfed down the hot flavorful liquid, I realized something. "Kyo! You're sick!"

He frowned a little, trying to cover up a sniffle. "No I'm not."

I hopped up and felt his forehead; he was a little bit warmer than normal. "Go and get in bed. Please."

He crossed his arms. "No, I'm fine."

I tried a different approach. "Would you please do it for me? I feel so guilty that you were out there waiting for me, and you got sick. It's my fault. I'm sorry! The least I can do is make sure you get better." I put my face in my hands, and peeked out of my fingers to see if he would take the bait.

He sighed. "No, it isn't your fault. I didn't wear a jacket, so it's mine. I'll go." _Bingo!  
><em>  
>"Thanks. I'll have some tea and medicine waiting for you; go take a shower and I'll get that to you before you go to sleep."<p>

He tramped upstairs, running his fingers through his mop of orange hair. _Man, it really does turn me on when he does that. I think I'm infatuated with his hair!_

I made a kettle of tea, and then dropped a big piece of peppermint and some cough medicine syrup into it. Taking a spoon, I mixed it and tasted it, satisfied with its results. I heard Kyo's bed creak a while later, so I got a big cup and poured the tea into it, then walked up the stairs to his room.

Kyo was sitting upright in his bed, legs stretched out as he rested on his elbows. When his red eyes flickered onto me, the familiar thrill that they gave me fluttered through my body.

"Here you go. Drink all of it, okay?" I told him as I perched on the edge of his bed.

He reached out for the cup and sipped. I sat back on his bed, arms folded comfortably behind my head.

"So why were you so late today?" Kyo asked, curling his fingers around the heat from his tea.

"Oh, yeah! I almost forgot to tell you. I found my brother Josh at work today!" I paused, as if I didn't quite believe it myself.

Kyo cocked an eyebrow; he could hear all of the love and happiness that accompanied my brother's name. "Really? That's great."

"Yeah." I sighed.

Kyo set hid cup down to fix me with his brilliant ruby gaze. "What's wrong?"

I stared up at the ceiling. "Josh wants me to move in with him. He thinks that I shouldn't live with you guys, and treats me like a little kid about it."

Kyo was silent; I guess he never had to worry about sibling problems. "Well, he's your brother. I'm pretty sure he just wants to look out for you, when your parents can't."

I crossed my arms. "But he knows that I can take care of myself. If I could support me and my father, and attempt to pay the hospital bills, I can definitely take care of myself. And it's not like you guys could ever hurt me or something. I'm too strong for any of you."

Kyo glared at me, and opened his mouth to protest. I cut him off, adding sweetly, "No offense." I reached up to pull him down into his bed, and snuggled as close as possible without transforming him.

Kyo wrapped his arms around me, and I gave a small slow smile. I could stay in the warmth of his hold forever. I balled my fists up and pressed them to his chest, so I could feel the rhythmic beat of his heart lull me to sleep.

**..::~*~::..**

I thrashed into wakefulness, and thumped onto the ground hard. A sheet was tangled around my body, halfway suspending me in the air. The light flickered on. "Angel?"

I looked up, my eyes dilated and wild. I struggled to focus on Kyo. "Unnh?" Was all I could mutter.

He closed the distance between us and lifted me onto the bed. A damp towel that he was holding was pressed to my forehead, and he laid me back onto his bed. "Calm down, I'm here now."

My body relaxed. "W-What _happened_?" I managed to whimper.

"You were shaking and crying, and saying a bunch of stuff that didn't make any sense; it wasn't even Japanese. And you were burning up, so I got up and went to the bathroom for a wet towel. And you fell out of bed just now." His eyebrows knitted themselves together as he swept my damp hair off my face. The strands were matted together with sweat and salty tears.

I hugged my arms and my teeth clacked together. "B-But I'm so c-cold. Hold me."

Kyo slid in bed. "We have to be up in another two hours." A glance at the clock revealed that it was 4:30.

"Whatever; I don't care. Just hold me, please." I rolled into Kyo, closing my eyes. I was asleep before the clock could read 4:33.

******..::~*~::..**

Kyo's voice pulled me into consciousness. "Let me outta here!"

His shirt was bundled in my arms. I jumped out of the bed. "Oh! sorry!"

He thrashed, caught in the sheets. I hurried to unwrap them from his lithe body. When I found him, I pulled him to my chest for a hug. "I'm sorry!" I exclaimed again.

Kyo glared up at me. "I've been trapped in there forever!" The little ball of fur growled. He bared his little dagger teeth at me.

I smiled and swung him in the air playfully, holding him underneath his arms.  
>Shigure's voice could be heard coming down the hall. Why was he up so early? "Good morning, children!"<p>

Kyo suddenly exploded into a poof of orange-tinged smoke. Shigure peeped in. "Hello, Ky- What are you two doing?"

I was still holding Kyo under his arms. Except he was a very naked, very human Kyo. "Ah... Um..." I stuttered, not really forming words.

Kyo whirled away from me. "Get the hell outta my room, ya damn dog!" He yelled. He flung a book at Shigure, and we both scuttled out of his room. I shut the door firmly.

"Ah... I'm going to get breakfast started." I sweatdropped, and tumbled over my feet in my haste to get to the kitchen.

I could feel the weight of Shigure's unasked question in the air, but he never said anything. Though he did have a smile plastered on his face, it seemed to carry a sliver of darkness and mystery to it. I faintly wondered,_ why?_

**..::~*~::..**

I scurried to my locker, and rifled through it hurriedly. I had forgotten to get my book for my teacher's class on my way from band, and she was being an ass about it, too. She gave me five minutes to get from her third floor class to my first floor locker, locate my book, and get back up two flights of stairs.

I grabbed a corner of the stupid book from the bottom of my locker. My neatly stacked school stuff crashed down, spilling into the hall. I cursed and shoved it all into the locker, fighting the metal door to stay closed.

The locker next to mine slammed closed, and I jumped. "_Ah!_Dammit, you scared the hell out of me!" I clutched my book with one hand and my chest with the other.

Kyo gave me a little smile. "Sorry." He was staring into my eyes, searching. I wondered what he looked for when he gave me that look.

"What is it, Kyo?" I asked, pulling on his arm. He slid from his spot leaning against his locker to keep up with my hasty pace.

"I know we didn't exactly start this relationship formally," he began. He ran his fingers through his hair.

"Yeah?" I replied. It excited me; Kyo, and few other people, didn't know that I was a diehard fan of romance and mushy stuff. I was extremely thrilled as I tried to guess what Kyo was trying to say.

"... I want to take you out to dinner tomorrow night. As our first official date."

"Oh, really? I didn't know you cared about that kind of stuff!" I exclaimed.

He blushed a little. "I don't care- I mean, I don't care about it like that. But I know you do."

This caught my attention. "What? How?"

He smirked. "Technically, you told me yourself. You talk a lot in your sleep."

I frowned. "You creepy _stalker_. Watching me while I sleep." I crossed my arms and huffed, faking anger.

Kyo put an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into his chest. "You're so fake, you know that?"

I smiled and reached up to kiss his nose. "Yup. Thank you, Kyo-Kyo."

He froze. "What did you call me?"

I laughed. "Nothing... Kyo-Kyo."

I darted away from him, as he tried to grab my arm. "Quit calling me that!"

"You'll have to catch me first!" I couldn't help but grin all the way to class. I couldn't wait for tomorrow to come fast enough!

**..::~*~::..  
><strong>**  
>So how was that? I'll work hard to bring you Chapter 7. If anybody is still reading this <em>(I know at least three people who still do, and you should know who you are. Thanks so much you guys! Yall are my support team for this story, and I really appreciate you guys.)<em> then thanks for being there. It really does make my day to check my email address and see such nice reviews... Please review. Thank you to all. :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**I know it's been a good little bit, but at least this chapter isn't as late as the last. A lot of things are clicking together and I'm able to pull the intended story out of my head and onto the computer. I actually had most of this typed up since Chapter Two, but I had so many brainstorms and new ideas that I wanted to add that it grew longer and longer. I had thirty-one pages in Microsoft Word before I noticed that I could publish Chapter 7!**

**This chapter is basically preparing you guys for the next chapters; after this one, everything is about to start getting crazy and maybe a little complicated. Probably even 'magical', I guess one could say. A lot of stuff is gonna happen, and the 'gifts' that I mentioned in the summary and the prophecy I wrote about in a previous chapter (I **_**think**_** I wrote about it…) will come into play as well.**

**Sorry for such a long note. I hope you're as excited as I am about this story! So, people, prepare to enjoy Chapter Seven! :]  
><strong>

**..::~*~::..  
><strong>

I glared up at the clock from behind the customer service counter that I was manning. One more freaking minute until I got off work. One! The evil device ticked so slowly. Once the second hand crept to the eleven, I nearly jumped for joy in a very unprofessional way from sheer relief. But the stupid thing then shuddered to a stop, and actually started ticking the wrong direction. "Oh hellll NO!" I shouted at the clock, getting a bit ghetto. **(A/N: That was for you, sis! Hide yo kids, hide yo wife. (: )**

Footsteps on the squeaky tiled floor behind me. "Don't worry, Angel, you can go home now. If the clock is bothering you so badly, I can bring another one by tomorrow, okay?" My manager said reassuringly and put a hand on my shoulder.

I smiled. "Sorry I'm so anxious to leave, but today I have a really special date to go on and I don't want to be late." I already knew I wouldn't be late, but I wanted to surprise Kyo with a new dress I was going to buy for myself.

I walked outside of the grocery store and unwrapped my apron from around my waist. Jumping onto my bike, I drove to the shopping mall and parked. Peeking into a few windows of some stores, I basically floated around looking for places for taller and curvier women. Finally finding a good store called Tall, Thick, and Curvy, I stepped in and wandered around. The place had tons of stuff everywhere, with awesome accessories that went perfect on my body type. To top it off, they even had shoes. Cute shoes. Big shoes for big-footed women. As a girl with rather enormous feet, it is insanely hard to find a decent pair of shoes in a size 13, for example. I'm almost a 14 by now. It was like I had died and floated off to heaven, but I quickly collected myself before anyone noticed me crumpled in the corner. Scurrying happily to a rack of dresses with my size, I shuffled through the fabrics quickly.

I had my mind's eye on the exact criteria that I wanted of the perfect dress: black, shape-fitting but not on my butt, right above my knees, low-cut but not too revealing. Soon, I had about a dozen dresses draped over my arm and I locked myself into a dressing room to try them on. One by one, they were all discarded on the little hard bench inside. Only one dress remained, and I took it off its hanger and slipped it over my head. I peered hopefully into the mirror and squealed with delight. This dress wasn't my dream dress, not at all. It was even better!

The dress was made out a soft, almost silken material that draped onto my body perfectly. It only had one shoulder strap on the left. It flowed down my body gracefully and flared out a bit a few inches above my knees. But the beauty of this dress came from the fact that it seemed like it was made just for me. Every contour of my body was highlighted in a spectacular way that was sexy yet sophisticated, not slutty. My thighs didn't look as fat and my butt wasn't as humongous-looking as usual. My waist looked a little tinier and my belly was completely flat now. Even my boobs looked bigger! _Man, this dress has to be magic!_

"Damn, this is it, baby!" I whispered to myself. When I checked the tag, my eyes just about popped out of their sockets. _A dress this cute this cheap? I might be able to afford a good pair of heels, too._ I wiggled out of the magic dress after dancing in front of the mirror a bit more. Time to start the hard job: finding a good pair of heels. Normally, it would take practically hours to find a pair of shoes that I liked and could fit and could afford. I figured that if I could find a magic dress, I could find a magic pair of heels, too.

I wandered over to the shoe section of the store. Ignoring the smaller-sized shoes, I bee-lined straight for the end of the shelves where the biggest sizes were located. I paced down the aisle, looking for a nice pair of silver heels that were pretty. Sadly, I found none to my liking after trying several. I was going to leave, but as I headed towards the door, something caught my eye. A pair of black leather knee-high boots with a zipper and a silver buckle at the top beckoned to me. I eagerly picked them up and pulled them on, holding my breath. They were a perfect fit! I bounced around on them, glad they were the kind of shoes you could wear with just about any outfit, too. Taking my magic dress and boots to the checkout counter, I paid for my outfit while smiling with glee.

**..::~*~::..**

I snuck into the house. Slipping out of my shoes, I gripped my shopping bags and headed upstairs. Shigure was on the couch reading the newspaper, and I smiled and nodded to him. "Hi, Shigure," I sang.

He smiled goofily. "Hello, my dear little Angel!"

"Pervert," I whispered to myself with a little laugh. Yuki was at the top of the stairs, coming down. I remembered that he and Shigure didn't have any dinner to eat while I was gone. "Hey, Yuki. I forgot to make you guys dinner; can you cook?"

Yuki gave me a funny look. "Me, cook? That is something impossible. Miss Williams, asking me to cook is the same as giving a toddler a burning candle while unsupervised. Both have a really superior chance of something catching on fire." He gave me a thin smile with the funny look. _Um, okay..._

Kyo came up from behind me. "Will you keep moving? Other people want to get to their rooms, you know." He grabbed me around my waist and kept walking, holding me up as he brushed past Yuki.

I protested. "Put me down, you big oaf!" My pleas fell on death ears. I called behind us to a slightly glowering Yuki, "Don't worry! I'll find something for you guys to eat!"

Kyo finally set me down in front of my room. "Let me guess, that's for tonight?" he asked, gesturing towards my shopping bags.

I smiled. "Yeah. Don't worry, you'll see it later. I bet you're gonna freak when you see me."

He gave me a wolfish smile. "Can't wait."

**..::~*~::..**

I was in my room, getting dressed for the date. Seated in front of my dresser and staring into the mirror, I put a silver necklace on. It had different chains all tied together, with little silver balls hanging off. I checked my reflection in the mirror one more time and gave myself a smile. I suddenly imagined that my mother and father were standing on either side of me, because I could see them clearly in the mirror.

My mother smiled. "Our daughter has become such a wonderful young lady. So strong and beautiful."

My father put a hand on my shoulder. I could feel it; it was big and warm. "She will keep, and is keeping, our legacy alive and well."

My mother reached for his other hand. "But I fear for her, Tyler. The gift that I passed on to her is one that will involve a dangerous life for her and to all she cares about."

Dad took his hand from her grasp to cradle her face. "Akira. Do not worry; she is my daughter. Look at all she's been through. She will be just fine."

Mom sighed. "But the prophecy. Remember?

'_When there is nothing left but your world of dark, you will find the man with the simple pure heart. You will fall instantly in a trance of love, and peace will befall you like the song of a dove. But beware for evil is determined to deter you; your loving heart will be shattered. Do not forget the man you shall love!'_

She has already started to fulfill it; she could be the chosen one. What about this evil that is to come?"

They both looked at me. The entire time I had sat immobilized and drank their every word in. But they were scaring me now. "Mom? Dad? What's going on? What are you talking about?"

Dad smiled sadly as Mom caressed my cheek softly. In a low voice, she said, "Do not worry, Angelena. Just know that we love you and are always with you."

"But what are you talking about? What prophecy?" My voice rose an octave.

They started to disappear. "Mom! Dad! Don't go, come back!" I shouted.

A ghost of their voices whispered, "We love you, Angelena…"

**..::~*~::..**

I found my face buried into my tear-soaked pillow. Gasping, I picked myself up and groaned. _And yet another dream, _I thought. _But what prophecy are they talking about? And what gift did Mom give me? _I crawled off my bed, upset that I had fallen asleep. I was only planning to rest my body for a few minutes, but as soon as I hit the bed, I was out cold. I glanced at my phone; it was 6:00. Kyo said to be ready by 7:00. _Crap!_

Peeling my clothes off and yanking a robe on, I went to the bathroom to shower and brush my teeth. In the shower I lathered my hair with shampoo and washed it quickly, while scrubbing my skin clean. Once I was clean and dry from head to toe, I hurried back to my room with a towel wrapped around my hair. I went to my closet and pulled my outfit out from its depths. Earlier I had picked out the jewelry I wanted to wear, and I now laid everything out on my bed.

After checking to make sure that everything was taken care of, I sat in front of my dresser and started to work on my hair. It had grown another four inches over the past week when I had last measured it, and was long enough to sit on now. I made a mental note to be careful to move it out of the way when I sat down so I won't look stupid on our date. Grabbing my blow-dryer and flat iron, I went to work drying my hair while the flat iron heated up. Once it was dry I flat-ironed my raven-black tresses, curling bouncy ringlets into the ends. The strands at the edge of my cheeks I took, then curled and flipped them back. Once I was done, I stood up and pulled my robe off carefully.

I picked up my dress and slipped into it, feeling a warm thrill of happiness as the smooth material hugged my body. Carefully, I put the chain necklace with the little balls around my neck. I took the backs off of my earrings and put those on, too. They were pretty little things; resembling tiny waterfalls, the diamonds sparkled and flowed. My hair accentuated their beauty as they were framed in my dark locks. I sighed, remembering the times when my mother had worn these very same earrings, for her most special occasions. Here I was, years later, doing the same thing as she. I held my breath suddenly as I stared into the mirror, my memory reminding me of my father's hand on my shoulder as my parents looked over my shoulder and whispered how beautiful I was. _But what were they talking about, and what was that prophecy?_

My phone vibrated on my bed where I had tossed it. When I got up to check it and throw it in my purse, it was announcing the five minute warning for my date about to begin. I sighed and pulled on my boots, grabbed a little black purse, put a small tan jacket on, and left my room. I made my way down the hallway, suddenly nervous and wondering whether or not Kyo would like my dress. _I hope Kyo doesn't think that I'm slutty or something,_ I thought crossly.

I put one foot on the first step, took a breath, and continued down slowly. When I got into the living room, all I saw was Kyo's back. He was talking to (or more like threatening) Shigure, who was faced in my direction. Shigure saw me immediately but gave nothing away as to my presence in the room; instead he just backed out of the conversation and left. I was grateful to him, as he probably knew that Kyo and I needed some free time together, alone.

I cleared my throat. "Kyo?"

He turned around, and our eyes both went big. "Whoa," we breathed together.

I smiled, embarrassed, while Kyo blushed. "Um… You look great. Really smexy." I said, astonished. I went to him and wrapped my arms around his waist.

Kyo kissed me softly. "You're so beautiful," he muttered against my cheek.

He held me at shoulder length to get another look at me. I checked him out again, too. Kyo wore dark jeans that weren't sagging, but weren't skinny jeans, either. He had a crisp white dress shirt on, and a black jacket that made him look sharp and sexy. His orange hair had been carefully combed and was nice and neat. That was the only thing I didn't like, though. I loved his hair all messy, because it was part of who he was. I reached up and tousled his hair just a tiny bit. "There," I sighed. "You're perfect now."

Kyo stared at me with those fiery eyes. "You look so amazing right now."

A shuffling sound came from behind me. Shigure appeared, holding a video camera. I noticed that the recording light was on. "Get out of here, little love birds!" He said enthusiastically. "You're supposed to be going out on a date, not admiring each other's clothes!" He pushed us to the door and handed Kyo his car keys.

Kyo growled and told him to shut up and go away. "Damn dog!"

I smiled and gave Shigure, then Kyo a peck on the cheek. "Thanks, Shigure!" I called and pulled my annoyed boyfriend outside. Once we were both in the black car, I sighed and leaned my head against Kyo's shoulder. "Don't let Shigure ruin our date, okay? Don't worry about him."

Kyo gave me a huffy look, then relented. "Okay," he said with a thin smile.

"Good." I sat up and patted his arm as he started up the car and pulled away from the house. "So where are we going?"

He smiled again, this time with more life and vibrancy. "You'll see."

**..::~*~::..**

It turns out what Kyo had in plan was to treat me to a fancy American style restaurant. The food was awesome and I ate heartily, until I felt like I would burst.

Kyo watched me with amusement on his face after he finished his second plate. I, however, was working on my seventh, which was spaghetti and meatballs, and was just now slowing down.

He chuckled a little bit, then asked, " How do you manage to eat all of this stuff?" and gestured to my neatly stacked and cleaned plates.

"Well, it takes practice," I explained between mouthfuls. "I've had an appetite like this for years, and besides, it's mostly just what your brain and taste buds want. Thank goodness I was born with what I call 'flexible stomach walls'."

He laughed a bit louder, shaking his head with a large smile. I twirled my chopsticks deftly, catching a maximum amount of noodles on them before impaling a meatball and chewing thoughtfully on them both. I already had other entrées, like mashed potatoes, green beans, corn bread, and black pepper steak and Louisiana gumbo.

"This is almost like the food back home, but nothing too close. One day you'll have to taste the real thing, Kyo. America has such a great mix of cultures and flavor in their food."

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "This isn't like America's food?" he asked.

"Nope. Not even close. It's just a fancy Japanese version, just like if you went to a Japanese restaurant there. Nobody makes any kind of food right except for the people who made it." I said, remembering what my mother used to say to me and my brother, Josh.

Kyo sighed, frowning. "I wanted to take you to a place that was just like home," he said.

I patted his clenched hand. "You know what, I'll make you a real American dinner. How about gumbo? I'll make it just like my mom used to do when we lived in San Francisco. She had our cousin's recipe, straight from New Orleans."

He smiled again, "That would be cool. Sounds good."

The head chef and manager stopped by our table again, for the billionth time. "Are you finding your dish to your liking, Miss Williams?" The chef said, bowing deeply.

Apparently this was the first time someone actually born and raised in America ever visited their restaurant, and both showered me with gratefulness for some weird reason. I only went along because it was funny how happy they were and I was getting free food.

I finished my plate and set my chopsticks down. "Everything is excellent," I replied, beaming. "And please, call me Angel."

He nodded, saying, "Thank you, Angel-senpai. It was an honor to serve you, our first American guest. Would you accept dessert, free of charge?"

I twitched from the honorific, then replied sweetly, "Of course, sir. Wow me."

He bowed again, muttering thank yous as he scuttled backward and nearly ran to the kitchens. The manager shook both of our hands and offered us a discount for forty percent off and one meal free, then handed Kyo the receipt. Kyo's face went rigid, then he relaxed. I peeked up at him from under my eyelashes.

The manager had already left swiftly, and I reached across the table to hold Kyo's hand. "How much is it?" I asked quietly.

He said, "More than I thought," and blanched.

"What about the discounts?"

"Oh yeah, I forgot that!" He muttered, running his fingers through his hair and smiling. "Now it's good."

"Good," I said mildly, then hunkered down and rested my head on the table. I clutched at my stomach and groaned, sudden fierce waves of pain emanating from my stomach.

"Angel-! What's wrong?" Kyo whispered fiercely, fighting between keeping his voice down and overreacting.

"I-I'm fine," I lied. "Just pay for the dinner and get my free dessert from the chef," I gasped, squeezing my eyes shut as an even more powerful roll of pain shook my body.

Kyo had moved to stand behind me with a comforting warm hand resting on my shoulder. He exclaimed, "Angel, you're unbelievable! You could be seriously sick and still worried about dessert after you ate seven plates of food?"

Ouch, that stung a little. "I'm sorry," I muttered, tears dripping out of my shut eyelids. My feelings were hurt, but I pretended that the tears were from the stomach pains and continued lamely, "I wanted to make that chef guy happy by complementing his food. I loved the look of happiness on his face every time I said something; I just like making people happy. Is that such a crime?"

Kyo reeled back at the quiet fury that was drowned in my voice; I sighed sadly.

"Ah... I didn't mean it, just stop crying, okay? I'll take you home now." He rubbed his head and sat back down just as the chef bustled back up to our table.

I sat up, my face somewhat clear and dry. I produced a chopstick from underneath the table and exclaimed, "Got it!" and held it up proudly as if it had fallen on the floor, and I had retrieved it. Smiling cheerfully, I politely asked him if he would put my dessert into a takeout container, and alerted him that we needed to be leaving very soon. He did so with a bow and bounced off quickly. As soon as he left I grimaced, and tried poking my stomach out in different positions to ease the pain.

However, nothing affected it positively; the chef soon returned with a flourish and proudly handed me a brown paper bag. "Here it is, my best dessert for my best and favorite customer! Go on, look," he urged me.

I reached inside and delicately pulled out a white plastic container; opening it up, a rich chocolate scent wafted up and made my mouth water despite my stomach pain. I gasped. "It's beautiful!" Inside, a thick rich slice of chocolate cake lay on its side as warm rivulets of homemade chocolate syrup drizzled down it. Two other smaller containers held more chocolate syrup and homemade vanilla bean ice cream. The delicious smells of vanilla and chocolate clashed together to form a most heavenly scent... Ahhhh, I was getting warm just by smelling the cake.

The chef beamed brightly. "I call it, The Blue Ribbon Angel Cake. It's not on the menu, but I made it especially for you, Angel-senpai. Please enjoy it."

I rose from the table slowly, trying to avoid jostling my stomach, and shook his hand firmly. Patting him on the back, I said warmly, "Congratulations on a job well done! I hate to say this, but I must get going. Oh, and did you name that cake after me? You definitely need to put it on the menu."

I gathered my purse and the carry-out bag and Kyo stood up as well, throwing his arm around my shoulder. "Yo, thanks for dinner tonight," Kyo said to the waving chef as he steered me to the door. Once Kyo paid and we got outside, I nearly collapsed from pain. Kyo had me hold the bags and carried me to Shigure's car. He laid me gently on the back seat, then got behind the wheel.

"Don't worry..." I said, as my sight slowly faded to blackness. I closed my eyes, suddenly noticing how tired I was, probably from working so hard lately. The last few weeks, I had been working two jobs because I planned to buy myself a new car to replace my motorcycle. I loved that bike a lot, but going to and from school was starting to get hard since I couldn't take all of my instruments and books, and now both Kyo and Yuki.

**..::~*~::..**

When we arrived back at the house, all the lights were off. Kyo carried me into the house and to my room. Luckily, Shigure was out for some business of his or whatever. Yuki was already asleep, so he might as well be considered to be gone, because he wouldn't be waking up until he absolutely needed to. Laying me on my bed, Kyo pushed my hair away from my forehead, then gasped. "Angel, you're burning up!"

I murmured sleepily, "Oh, really? I'm freezing." He leaned over me and pulled a thick blanket over my feverish body.

"Geez, Angel. I'm gonna go grab you a wet towel. I'll be right back."

I sighed, "Okay..."

He rushed down the hall, and I could hear him rummaging around in the bathroom. I decided to change clothes quickly since I felt so rotten. After taking off my magic dress and pulling some old jeans and a T-shirt on, I rewrapped myself with the blanket.

I took a deep breath that strangely rattled in my chest. I could feel a dull pounding ache in my lungs that quickly grew, and a warm slippery feeling at the base of my throat. I coughed once, experimentally, to see if the sensation would disappear. Instead, it started a hacking cough and I spluttered, reaching for my asthma inhaler. Suddenly I felt like I had to throw up, but my stomach wasn't clenching up like it usually did in those instances. I held my fingers to my mouth and sat on the edge of my bed to avoid getting anything on the bed. Soon, I felt a warm thick liquid slide from between my fingers and dribbled onto my chest, clothes, and the floor. I coughed even harder. After a bit of gasping for breath, I tried to shake the liquid off my hands.

I froze as Kyo finally arrived with a warm wet towel held in his fist triumphantly. His eyes widened in shock. "Angel? You... You're bleeding!" He yelped, flying into the room to my side.

"What?" I hacked a little bit, but was more worried about Kyo than myself. _He's so sweet!_ "No I'm not. It's just a little throw up..." I trailed off as I noticed the crimson stains on my fingers. "Oh... Goodness gracious..." I whispered, as another bout of coughing shook my body. I fell back onto the pillows, my previous stomach pains choosing that moment to return. Kyo just stared down at my convulsing form, still in shock. "Get me some damn help then!" I rasped angrily, knowing he would respond faster to hostility.

He snapped out of his stupor. "Don't tell me what to do," he muttered stubbornly, then grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and frantically dialed a number.

"Hello?" A deep voice answered. It was Hatori. Kyo explained hurriedly about my situation, and the dragon calmly told him to take me to the hospital and he would meet us there. Kyo hung up and gathered me in his arms, bundling me up in the bloodied blanket. I kept coughing, splattering his shirt with blood. Yuki's door slid open and a zombie walked out.

"Ahh! Stay back," I screamed huskily before realizing that it was only a sleep-deprived Yuki. I muttered apologies between spitting out blood.

Yuki's eyes widened and he growled to Kyo, "What the hell did you do to Angel?" Kyo slitted his eyes at the rat.

"I don't have time for this, you damn rat. We're gonna be at the hospital; tell Shigure so he'll know." With that, he ran downstairs and laid me in the back seat of Shigure's car again. "Close your eyes and relax," he whispered, then softly wiped my face off. The towel came away damp with blood. Kyo paled, then climbed into the driver's seat and we darted away from the still, dark house in the woods.

**..::~*~::..**

We pulled up to the front of the hospital. Kyo drove me right to the door and then jumped out and slammed the door. Pulling me out the door, I aimed yet another spout of blood down into the ruined blanket that cocooned my body as he picked me up. I wriggled out of it, wiped my face as best as I could, and nestled my head against his chest. Kyo glanced down at me for a split second, then dashed inside the building. Inside, bright florescent lights bounced off of white walls and a clean linoleum floor. It made my head hurt and I spat some more blood out, this time spraying droplets of blood onto Kyo's shirt. He found a wheelchair and sat me in it as a nurse came over to talk to him.

"Oh dear, what's wrong?" she asked, inspecting me.

"That's the problem," Kyo grumbled. "I don't know. Where can I take her?" He rolled me around, ready to go.

"Well, sir, we can't accept her here. You'll have to go to the emergency entrance-" Kyo cut off her nervous chatter, fire burning in his blood red eyes.

"Why the hell do you people call this place a hospital? She could be dying right now and all you people are worrying about is which door we go in. It's obvious that she'll have to stay tonight anyway, so give her a damn room!"

The nurse shrank back, putting her hands in the air helplessly as she said, "I'm sorry sir, but that's what we're told to do..."

Kyo scowled darkly. "Whatever. I'll be back." He spun back around and charged out the door. He rode on the back of the chair as I flew along, then got off and pushed some more. We cruised into the waiting room and stared openmouthed. The emergency room line was lengthy; it would take us hours to get through. Kyo, however, had no intentions to wait. He sauntered past everyone and spoke to the receptionist. "Is there any way you can get her a room? The family doctor for the Sohmas is already on his way but we needed a place to lay her down and second opinions. Please, you have to help her." He was practically begging by now, his red-hot anger being replaced by desperation and worry.

"Ah, yes; Sohma you said? We got a call by a Dr. Hatori Sohma arranging for a room for one of his patients. He said that a boy named... Kyo Sohma would come in holding a bloodied girl and ask for a room. I take it that you're Kyo Sohma?" The nurse scanned over a few notes scattered in front of her.

Kyo nodded as the doors burst open to reveal Hatori and a cute white-haired boy... Hatsuharu. Hatori strode up to us with a critical look to me and placed his hands outspread on the counter. Haru sucked in a sharp breath and ran to our little group, kneeling down to be eye level with me.

"Angel?" he said carefully. "What happened? Did Kyo do this to you?" He ignored the fiery dagger look that Kyo was shooting him.

I tried to laugh and say "No," but I only managed to spray more blood. I swiped my hand up in an attempt to block Haru's face, then beckoned for him to back up a little.

Meanwhile, the nurse had given Hatori a key and directions to a room. He thanked her and beckoned the boys to wheel me there. I clutched my stomach as another wave of pain gripped my body. Haru jumped up and zoomed my wheelchair after Hatori. When we got to the room, Kyo picked me up and laid me on the bed. Hatori gave me a dose of medicine that was supposed to make my stomach pains disappear, and I started to feel drowsy. In a rush, I explained all my symptoms to Hatori, right before I dropped off into a dreamless sleep.

**..::~*~::..**

I cracked my eyes open, rubbing at them. As the events of yesterday dawned upon me, I glanced at my fingertips. They were clean, although I expected to see them streaked with blood.

A flash of orange moved into my view. "Morning," Kyo said, kissing my forehead. He looked down at me with a mild look of anger etched in his features.

"What's wrong, baby?" I asked sweetly.

He only looked away from me, not meeting my questioning eyes. "Well... my problem is you, sorta."

I glared at him, shocked and offended. "Excuse me?"

Kyo started to talk again, more confidence seeping into his voice. "You, Angel. You're always trying to take care of other people but you don't take care of your own self too well. Look at you; you're in the hospital. All because of the stress that you put on yourself."

I clambered out of the bed and ripped the UV needles from my arm. I could feel my anger whooshing up, and my blood start to boil.

Kyo stupidly kept talking, not knowing what he was getting himself into. "Why didn't you say anything, Angel? Why didn't you tell us that you haven't paid all of the hospital bills for your dad, and that you won't have the money to pay it off before the deadline. Why won't you let us help—"

I cut him off, and screamed, " SHUT UP! Shut up." I felt sick, because my love-at-first-sight romance with Kyo seemed to be shattering all at once. "What, Kyo? So it's a crime now to get sick and need medical attention? What are you trying to tell me? Plus, you're instigating in _my _financial business. And if you don't have anything good to say, you can shut the hell up before I make you!"

He jumped up and pointed at me, his own trademark temper flaring up rapidly. "I was just trying to help! You're the one who's got blood ulcers and has crazy blood pressure! I was trying to tell you to stop being so selfless and take care of yourself for once! There are other people, like me, who love you and want to take care of you and will help you with anything! Stop pushing us away and actually try to let somebody else do something for you for once in your life!"

I balled my hands into fists, my hair flared out behind me like a wildfire. I pushed Kyo away from me. "Stay outta my face, and stop trying to act all fucking high and mighty! Why the hell would you come in here and get me mad, when I'm supposed to be recuperating? You know what, I'm done with this. I don't want to have to hurt you, so I'm leaving. Talk to me again when you're not being outrageous. Just fuck off, jerk."

His face turned dark. "And how the hell are you gonna hurt me, huh? Bitch-slap me until I collapse? Or are you too afraid of breaking a nail?"

I whispered murderously, "Don't make me do anything stupid..."

Kyo laughed harshly. "You already did. Who the hell do you think you are? You can't take some constructive criticism?"

That was the last straw. Actually, I never took constructive criticism too well. I swung my leg up hard and kicked him in the center of his chest, as a single tear slipped out the corner of my eye. Kyo flew backwards and hit the wall hard. His head drooped down on his chest, and I realized that he was unconscious.

"I'm sorry, but you were asking for it," I muttered, and stooped down to check the back of his head. I didn't see any blood, just a large lump that was already swelling, so I picked him up and dragged him into the bed. I stood there for a moment and just stared down at him with angry tears in my eyes. One found its way off of my eyelash and onto his cheek. I stroked his peaceful face softly, kissed him on the forehead, then briskly strode out of the room.

I nearly knocked over Hatsuharu as he was coming into the room, a tray of food balanced in his hands. "Angel?" he asked, surprised. "What are you doing out of bed?"

I hastily wiped the moisture from my eyes and fixed him with a steely gaze. "I... I got into an argument with Kyo and I had to kick his ass."

Haru's eyebrows rose. "Really? Is he pissed?" he pressed, eagerly.

I snickered, trying to act bad-ass to hide my emotions. "You can ask him when he wakes up."

This time, Haru's jaw dropped. "You knocked him out cold, too?"

I nodded, a fake evil smile playing on my face.

"I gotta see this," he exclaimed and trotted into the room. I followed him, as he surveyed the scene before him. Kyo was sprawled in the hospital bed, a huge lump now appearing from his hair. The paint on the wall had cracked and chipped, which wasn't visible before I moved him. Haru whistled. "Man, I can't believe I missed this," he stated, running a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, yeah. Hey, can you drive?" I muttered.

He shook his head, so I went back to Kyo and stuck my hand in his pocket. Groping around, I quickly found what I was looking for, and pulled out the keys to Shigure's car. "I guess I'll drive."

I headed to the door, but Haru tugged on my arms and spun me around. I unwittingly found myself in Haru's arms, one wrapped around my waist to keep me from transforming him. He shook his head and glanced down my figure. "Where do you think you're going in that tiny hospital gown?"

I was so close to Haru. My hands were splayed on his slight but built chest. I could feel his heart pulsate underneath my fingertips, and somehow I found myself wanting to kiss the owner of that heartbeat. So, that's exactly what I did.

Haru's kiss was nothing like Kyo's. Kyo always had a needy feel with his kisses, fiery and intense, but with Haru they were slow and passionate. But for some strange reason, I started to develop a weird twinge in my gut; some emotion I couldn't quite pin my finger on. Haru grinned into the kiss, deepening it as time progressed. Finally, when I heard sounds of Kyo stirring, I stopped.

"Oh yeah, my boyfriend is right here," I whispered the obvious.

Haru shook his head. "And you still call him your boyfriend after all this?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess I do. I know that everything he said is probably true, but still... I need to go calm down, so I'm gonna go visit my brother. He always used to calm me down a lot."

I pulled Haru out of the room and looked around, then snuck into a closet with a sign that read "Staff Only". Inside, there were a bunch of white coats and uniforms. I pulled one off the hanger and slipped it on, then buttoned it up around my hospital gown. I walked out and closed the door, and then went to where Haru was standing.

"Problem solved. Can we please go now?" I asked, and pulled him down the hall.

Haru nodded, and we bustled down the squeaky corridors. "Can I ask you something, Angel?" he asked.

"What is it, Haru?"

He glanced at my face. "How come you're not upset or anything about being in a hospital? I know your dad died in one."

He probably saw my face harden. "That's a good question. Actually, I watched him die in this very hospital. But I think that I've just accepted the fact that he's gone and that I'm ready to move on. My only problems are that I still have debts to pay. But-" I cut myself off, not wanting go on. These were topics that I didn't even discuss with Kyo or Josh, because I didn't want them to worry. And even though I feel like I'm in love with Haru, it wouldn't feel right.

We walked in silence as Haru pondered his next response. By the time we were sitting in Shigure's car, halfway to the house, Haru said, "Angel, I care about you. You can trust me and tell me anything, okay? I support you and I love you. If you ever need a shoulder to cry on when times are tough, I'll be there for you."

I gripped the steering wheel as a warm flooding feeling washed over me. I took it that I had the hots for Hatsuharu, and as soon as we hit a red light, I pulled his head to me by his ears and kissed him dead on the lips ferociously. When I kept driving, I whispered, "Thanks, Haru, thank you so much..." I hadn't heard any of that before from anyone other than my family. Maybe Kyo wanted to say it, and almost has, but Haru said it first and I love him and will always love him for it.

I thought about what I had started to say in the hospital. Considering the newfound emotions that I had for Haru, I decided to tell him the truth. "Haru?"

"Hmm?" He looked over at me as my voice slightly shook.

I hadn't thought that he had heard it, but he reached over and grasped one of my hands. His warm hand (though not as warm as Kyo's) gave me enough strength to go on. "Okay... What I was about to say in the hospital is that I've been having some issues with the hospital lately. A few days ago I got a call saying that I hadn't paid all of my debts and fees. The problem is that I _have_ finished paying it all back. I even have the receipts and documents claiming I did so. But for some reason, they're still calling me... So I'm suing the hospital for emotional distress and false debts. But yesterday I got another call saying that they're countersuing for unpaid debts. I'm due to be in court in two weeks."

Haru looked at me sharply. "Really?...I wish I could help. Why would they do that to you? You don't have any reason for them to try to ruin your life further."

I shrugged. "I don't think that all of this ruined my life. You just gotta think positive; besides, I never would have met any of you Sohmas. Look, when life gives you lemons-"

Haru cut in, "Yeah yeah, then you make lemonade."

I smiled. "No, silly! You add sugar and make some damn good lemonade and build a lemonade empire from it! Duh."

He raised a brow. "I never heard that one before."

"Didn't think so."

"I knew someone once who said that you were supposed to squeeze the juice into your enemy's eyes."

"I heard that one, too. I invented it, being the violent person I am." I said cheerfully.

Haru touched my arm, and we entwined our fingers together as I steered with one hand. He sighed. "You are the most insane, amazing person I have ever met."

"Why, thank you! You're so sweet."

**..::~*~::..**

**So how was that, everybody? I'm sorry that I've not been writing as much as I used to. Thank goodness I had all these bursts of good random ideas for this story, or else it just would have been sitting here as I continued to work on survivng high school. But I do have a bit of good news about myself (which also explains why I haven't been writing): my band got invited to a parade!**

**This is something really big for us; my band director describes it as a one-in-a-lifetime thing. We do march in parades and stuff, but this time is unique because it's special. Our state just recently got through with elections for our new governor. The guy's committee pulled together a parade to celebrate, and we were one out of 24 bands invited! Our city's mayor, the school superintendent, all of our band instructors, and the band nerds (I'm one!) are all super excited. Our teacher wrote a rendition of "America the Beautiful" and the band has been busy learning how to play, memoize, and march the song. I have ADHD and a terrible memory, so learning and memorizing a song in less than a week is really hard fot me. Not to mention that I sorta suck at marching and keeping tempo, so... I have a lot on my plate right now, basically.**

**But anyways, how was this chapter? Please leave me a review so I can know. Until next time, my wonderful readers!**


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